


Wooden Town

by SpiritKitten



Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: A series of short works making a big work, Alternate Universe - Human, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Blood, Child Neglect, Feng is a youtuber, Fluff, Gen, Head Injury, Hurt/Comfort, I feel like I'm spaming all the people who are subscribed to me, I wrote this almost a year ago but never got around to posting it, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Injury, Injury Recovery, Jake Builds Stuff!, Jake doesn't like being touched, Jake is fond of legion, Jake is making a big family, Jake is stubborn, Kinda, Laurie and Michael are psychotic siblings, Making fun of height differences, Michael is chill in this, My brother loves Bill so I made sure to include him, Nea and Jake don't like each other, No Plot, Old Work, One shots compiled together, Oops, Past Child Abuse, Peer Pressure, Songs, Touch-Starved, Unfinished, actually some plot, eating problems, he doesn't know why, i spent a lot of time on this, small town, sorry - Freeform, unbetaed, various references I forgot about, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 29,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27571243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritKitten/pseuds/SpiritKitten
Summary: Jake Park buys a plot of land in the woods. He thought he'd be completely alone, but no. No, He's stuck getting bombarded by strangers who want to be friends. Someone should have told him about the small town in the middle of the woods.
Relationships: But eh - Relationship, Dwight Fairfield & Claudette Morel & Jake Park & Meg Thomas, Dwight Fairfield/David King, Jake Park & Everyone, Jake Park & Legion, Jake Park & Quentin Smith, Michael Myers/Jake Park, Not Really, some hints of
Comments: 8
Kudos: 65





	1. Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> First one!

Jake had only been living in his cabin in the woods for a week when he realized that it was not as isolated as the previous owner had made it out to seem. It was supposed to be 35 kilometers of wilderness, but instead it was only 16 miles. Yeah, they said that there were service roads and trails up here, but not an entire freaking town. That was a big difference to what he had been told, and Jake was pretty pissed off about it.

But, no matter how many times he calls the old owner of this place he wouldn't pick up. It was only when he called his sister did she say that the old man had died 3 days before, cancer or something. Which meant that he would not get an explanation for why there was a village in the middle of his forest, or a refund for the cabin itself. It just served to further infuriate Jake.

The town itself was small, maybe only 200 people at most. It was mostly comprised of small businesses and companies. They lined the streets, stories high. There was a road that ran through it, bringing supplies and other needed materials, making it stable. There was even a farm on the very outskirts. The people there were surprisingly young, not the elderly living in the homes that their ancestors had built and owned for countless generations. Overall it seemed pretty new.

They had seemed surprised when Jake had wandered in, dirty faced and greasy from not having taken a shower or a bath in a few days. Who could blame him, if you didn’t care about how dirty you were, and there was no one around to judge you, would you take a shower? He’s been meaning to take a bath in one of the rivers surrounding his house, but hasn’t gotten around to it. He just wanted to explore his new land, get used to the place and map it out.

Anyways, when Jake had wandered in they had avoided him for awhile, but when he came up to ask a little old lady and her son what the town was and why there was a village in the middle of the woods they stared at him for a few moments, surprised. And then they immediately asked him why he was there and how he got up through the security.

They clammed up when he said he lived in the cabin about 16 miles away. It was weird because there was no security there or at the base of the road, and why would there be security there anyways? They explain, slowly, that they were a town called D.B.D. That they were asked to live there for a time by the government, different reasons for each citizen and family, and that most of the time you had to have a reason to drive up to the town. Regular citizens weren’t supposed to be up in the mountains. 

He left soon after, mad that the old man had lied about what he was buying and that he wasn’t as alone as he thought he was. But, at least he didn’t have to walk or call for someone to get him to town to get supplies anymore. It’ll cut down on some of his expenses too. 

He’s only ever gone back to town once more, three weeks later. He had accidentally cut his arm open trying to set a trap near his house. He was trying to cut a rope to shorten one of his snares, but he slipped and cut a giant gouge into his right arm. He had used up his entire medical supplies trying to get it to stop bleeding and then wrap it. Which was a very deadly thing not to have out in the wilderness. Thankfully he’d only have to walk for a few hours before he could get to town.

It’s how he ended up here, in front of a store called “ _ Heals and Herbs _ .” It was the closest thing they had to both a pharmacy and a doctor in the small town, and he’s asked multiple people about it too. He wasn’t against alternative medicine or anything, because he used it himself, picking up edible or medicinal plants he finds in the area around his house. But, Jake thinks that the people who run the shops are both insane and rude. Not to mention really unsafe, the one he used to go to pick up identification books and other supplies at had a woman who thought vaccines were morally wrong and harmful. I mean, who thinks that!?

Jake shook his head, clearing his thought and trying not to think about the aching pain in his sore arm. This was better than nothing. He had to get supplies somewhere, and this was definitely better than dying from an infection.

Jake let out a disgruntled sign as he entered the colorful shop. At first he was confused, but then he was amazed by all the variety in front of him. There were plants he’s only ever seen in books planted in pots and garden spaces. It smelled amazing too, like sweet flowers and damp moss. Nothing like the fake generic scents of incense the old alternative medicine shop had smelled like. The sun was shining through a glass roof, basically making a greenhouse effect in the building. Both lightening the place up with natural sunlight and making it warm. It was absolutely breathtaking.

Jake was so busy admiring the bountiful plants and smells that he didn’t even notice the woman behind him trying to get his attention. He almost jumped when he noticed her there, he awkwardly smiled at her. She stood an inch taller than him, her dark dreads bouncing lightly on her head as she moved about.

“Hey, you're new here aren't you?” Her smile was sweet and kind, she was waiting patiently by a flower pot for him to answer. 

“Uhh, yeah. I moved in at the cabin a few weeks ago…” Jake nervously backed up, he didn’t like being too close to people. It was nerve racking knowing how close she got without him noticing, he usually knew if someone did. He was too distracted by this colorful and bright place to have seen her. 

“That’s cool, I like the woods around here, it’s a very peaceful place.” She picked up the pot to move it to a sunnier place near the back wall. The dappled light bouncing of her dark skin. 

“...Yeah…” Jake moved to run his hand over his arm, wincing back when it made the cut sting. He tried to hide it but it was definitely noticed if the sudden worried look she sent him was anything to say by it.

“Is that- What happened.” She moved to crowd against him, trying to peel back his sleeve, only backing off when she saw how he tensed up. Yeah, Jake didn’t like people touching him, even if they were trying to help.

“Oh, uhh, cut my arm.” Jake pulled up his rumpled sleeve, knowing there wasn’t any point in hiding it because she already knew about it. “I used up all my supplies, needed more…”

“That’s not fun.” She was carefully studying the wrap, checking it maybe? “ I’m guessing you're here for some herbs.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Okay, first! Can I look at your arm? I need more practise and it… you know?” She awkwardly pulled out a stool from the counter from her register, patting it to invite him to sit.

“Uhh, I don’t know..” Jake backed up, ready to run for the door if she tried to force him. He didn’t like people checking his wounds, they always make it worse with their prodding and pulling fingers. 

“Please, it’ll be free of charge and I’ll let you have an extra bundle of herbs for free.” She was desperately waving at him, trying to get him to back away from the door, a pleading look in her eyes. “I really need the practice, I’m the only ‘doctor’ here.”

“...Okay, fine.” Jake didn’t really know why he agreed he just did. Seeing her jump around in glee and happiness was also very worrying. It must have shown on his face because she immediately stopped and calmed herself. A sheepish smile on her face as she moved to pull off her grinder from the shelf behind the register.

Jake sat down on the stool she was patting, unwrapping his bandage on his arm. The cut had slit from maybe two inches above his wrist all the way up to his elbow. It didn’t look good, It definitely wasn’t going to be a pretty scar, but at least he didn’t bleed out.

“Sorry, it’s just… people don’t get injuries like this often. I haven’t gotten that much practise.” she was carefully cradling his arm in her hands, pushing and prodding at the already stitched wound. Rolling the skin around to make sure the stitches were in place.

“Hmmm, I don’t know how much practise you'll get from this.” Jake held back the small winces, no need to scare the person who was learning good skills. “I already stitched and bandaged it myself.”

“It’s okay. I can see how you did it and then try to copy it as close to the original as possible in the future…” She moved back, done, but then she hesitated. “Uhh, can I put an ointment on it?”

“...Why?” Warning bells flung themselves into his head. This meant more touching and more proding. Jake’s body tensed again, ready to springe away if she tried to touch him. This is turning out to be one of the worst days he’s had since moving out into the cabin.

“Well, I also need practise making and putting ointment on wounds…” She cringed back, silently wincing at the way he was tensed.

“...” Jake didn’t know. She seemed nice but, This is all so weird, and he doesn’t like being touched.

“Please! I promise it won’t be long!”

“...fine…” Jake rested his arms against the counter letting her pull the various ingredients off the shelf behind her, checking and pulling out the old ones and then throwing them away if they aren't good anymore. She was actually really good at it. Jake remembers doing this with the herbs at that small shop in his hometown. He didn’t work there, his parents wouldn't let him, but he did help out from time to time.

It was silent for a few minutes, comfortable and content, as she pulled and pulverised the herbs and roots. She was using golden-rod, calendula, garlic, marigold, and chili peppers. It was going to sting, but it would definitely keep his wound clean.

She gently reached for his hand, pulling it towards herself to expose the vulnerable wound. Jake squinted his eyes, trying not to pull back. “My names Claudette by the way.” She glanced nervously up at him, eyes keeping track of where she was spreading the thick paste.

“...M’ Jake.”

“Hmm, that’s a nice name.” She pulled away again, making sure she had covered the entire length of the cut, “Since your new, uh, do you know where everything is?”

“..no, not at all.” Jake shifted back, only to be pulled back so that she could try and wrap his arm. She seemed to be doing okay, it just needed to be a little bit tighter. He’ll fix it back home when he gets back.

“Okay” Claudette finally pulled back, letting Jake readjust himself on the chair, “Well I guess we’ll start with the important people, the ones that you’ll probably meet up with the next time you come down.”

“Uhh…” Jake didn’t really know if he was going to come back down again, but if she wanted to explain the town to her then she could.

“Well down the street there’s a restaurant called, _ “Da-wight stop”  _ a good friend of mine owns it. His name is Dwight and he mostly likes pizza and burgers. They’re really good. He runs it with a friend, David. He gets a little rowdy sometimes but he’s loyal and kind when he wants to be. He runs the bar section”

Jake didn’t think he’d be going there, he set traps for a reason. He didn’t like fast food; they make his stomach hurt for some reason. He prefers the satisfaction of catching and providing for himself over the nauseating stomach pain of eating greasy food. Not to mention that he didn’t drink that much, it’s fun, but not very nice when you need to hunt the very next morning.

“Hmm, oh! the police station only has one cop and a trainee. They are Tapp and Rin. They're both really kind and helpful, but Rin can be moody at times. There's also a news reporter that works in the same building, Jane. She tells the town news every morning. You were on it a few weeks ago.”

“The news?” Why was he on the news, did he do something bad? Did everyone know he was there?

“Yeah. It’s pretty nice.” She smiled at him as she replaced the herbs on the shelf.

Jake tried to wrap his head around the names. Police officers were important, but Claudette was moving way too fast for him to actually think about who they were. It also didn’t help that she just said that he was on the news. 

“There is also a school in town. It’s small, but still useful. There's only one teacher, adam, he’s very sweet and caring. He’s good with the rowdy kids of this town. Just so you know the kids are mostly teenagers and they can get into a lot of trouble.”

Jake hummed absorbing the information. Jake was okay with kids, he didn’t ever plan on having any himself, but he didn’t hate them. Jake just doesn’t want to have the responsibility of taking care of them, he forgets his own well being alot. He didn’t mind if they got into trouble a little bit, though. It’s good for development or something, better than staying inside all day studying. 

“Frank, Joey, Suszie, and Julie started a gang called The Legion. It was scary at first, but then when they only busted a window in or two every thing called down. Quentin hangs out with them sometimes, he’s another student at the school. But he mostly hangs out with Laurie. She’s okay, a little rough around the edges but it’s because she has to live with her older brother Michael. He’s pretty creepy.”

“Uh…” There were so many names. Jake couldn’t really hear who they were. Each new person’s name bounced right of Jake’s head, not absorbing at all. How was he going to memorise all these people...

“Yeah, I’d stay away from him if you can.” Claudette’s face was pinched. She probably thought that he was talking about… Michelle, Michel, Michael? Jake doesn’t remember.

“There’s also Feng, Nea, and Meg. Nea and Frank were held back, while Meg has been working online college courses; she likes to run in the woods sometimes. Feng’s only 16, but she has a youtube channel. Apparently she has blown up big or something, I don’t really get it but all that matters is that she’s happy.”

“Youtube?” Jake didn’t know what that was. Some kind of tv show maybe? It sounds weird, though.

“Yeah. Pretty neat right.” Claudette paused again, “... Uh, oh Danny, and Max are also students, but they mostly skip school or stay home. Max is a sweetie, he just needs a lot of attention he doesn’t get from his home life. Danny is… interesting.”

“Sounds alright…” Jake was starting to get confused. This was a huge information drop. There were just way too many names to remember.

“Believe me, they can get a little rough around the edges…” Claudette shivered at some kind of thought or memory.

“Next you could see the senior citizen center, it also doubles as the activity center. Bill, Ace, and Ash live by there, but they don’t like being called elderly or old. Then there is the old mine system up in the mountains. It was shut down, but the company is still here. Evan runs it with Herman and Sally. They used to be doctors, but their licenses got revoked.”

“Uh, I don’t-” Jake tried to stop her but was cut off. He doesn’t think he’ll ever go there on his free will.

“Philip runs a gas station/mechanic office down the long road. He’s mute, but he’s also very nice. He runs it with Amanda and Kate, a singer who wandered into town and just stayed. She had nowhere else to go so Philip let her stay with him. Amanda is grouchy, but is hilarious if she’s in the mood to joke.”

Jake just sighed, he wasn’t even trying to listen anymore. It was way too much.

“Uh, let’s see. Ah! Yui and Jeff made a punk store down the street. They sell clothing and alot of other supplies too. Hmm, Lisa is nice. She helps feed everyone in town, she owns a farm a mile away. Next I guess would be… uh, Anna! She lives in the woods, just like you. Albeit just a bit closer, she helps Adam with the kids sometimes.”

Kids, Evan, Anna, uh...

“There's a few people left, but I don’t think you’ll run into them just yet… Are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah…” Jake shook his head, he’ll get to actually memorizing their names when he meets them, “Just overwhelming.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. That was probably a lot. We’re all just so excited. There hasn’t been a new person in this town for over 3 years. It’s nice. You know?”

“Y-yeah.” Jake pushed himself off the stool. “Do you, do you have these herbs?” Jake held out a list that he pulled from his pocket. He was planning on getting more, after seeing that she had so many, but he may just go home now.

“Hmm, yeah!” She danced off her seat, pausing to grab a bundle off a shelf every once in a while. She was humming to herself, singing a soft song under her breath. She carried the herbs to the front to place them in a paper bag. On the front it said  _ Biodegradable _ . Jake was pretty happy about that, you don’t know the amount of trash he had to pick up when he got to the forest in the first place.

“That will be $34.99, please.” She waited patiently as Jake pulled out his wallet. He got money from the government for owning unmanned and forested land. As long as he let it over grow he’ll get around $500 a month. It was enough to support him seeing as he didn’t need to pay any bills or loans. Just gas for his generators and a few supplies, like rope and twine.

“Well… thank you again, Jake.” She smiled at him softly, eyes shining with happiness, “I hope we meet again.”

“Yeah you too.” Jake gave her an awkward smile as he was heading to the door. That was nice, just overwhelming. He’ll have to come say hi again, when he gets over the tiredness already seeping into his bones. Dealing with people is hard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second!

Jake was out in his forest again, resetting snares to catch rabbits. He was doing this in one of the animal trials behind his house, maybe 3 to 4 miles away. He saw their racks a few days ago, so he placed a couple of tracks in the underbrush hoping to catch dinner. It always made Jake feel bad to kill them, but he needed to eat and the only way to do that was to catch innocent little creatures, or big innocent creatures.

Jake didn’t have anything to catch the deer and elk by his house. He could barely catch the tiny things, like rabbits and squirrels. He had to set at least 10 traps a day to catch one of those fast little things. 

He was startled out of his thoughts when there was a sudden snap a few meters away from him, up ahead, further into the trai.

“Fuck!” An unknown voice boomed across the clearing, making the birds scatter from the trees creating a dark canopy of feathers and feet. As soon as it was ther it was gone, their fluttering noises replaced by distant yells and cussings. Jake mourned their loss, he liked the birds a lot. Never having the heart to catch them.

Instead he picked up his past, ignoring the obviously empty snares until he set his eyes upon the surreal scene in front of him. It seemed almost fake, Jake wouldn’t have believed it if he wasn’t seeing it in his face at that very moment.

“Get me down! Joey!” The one hanging from his right foot called out, probably to the teenager in the darker hoodie. They all had masks one, vaguely painted on with red paint and marker to look like blood. The one in the tree had it’s mask pulled up, exposing his face to the others.

“H-Hey man call down! I can’t get you down if you keep twisting like that.” The dark hoodie one, presumably Joey, answered back, swaying his curved red knife in the air. The one with pink hair swayed back and forth between one side to the other, obviously nervous.

“Fuck, my leg! It hurts, fuck.” Jake could see they way it was bent, definitely sprained, but not broken.

“It’s going to be okay! Just calm down!” The one dressed like the one in the snare was trying to calm the frantic man down. 

“You calm down!”

“Yeah that was original…” Jake would be able to visibly see her roll her eyes if it wasn’t for her mask.

“Yeah, well stick that shit up your ass alright. I think I broke my fucking foot.” He turned around to flip her off, groaning as his friend pulled a little too hard on his leg, trying to reach for the rope.

“I don’t know man, what if you drop on your head, I might even cut you on accident!” The teenager was trying to hold the smaller man's foot up, trying to relieve the pressure while he gripped the rope above his head.

“Just get me down.” Joey let go of his foot gently and then reached up with his knife to begin sawing at it.

Jake moved before the stupid teenagers could accidentally cut of their friends foot. “Wait!”

They all jumped back, well except the swinging man in front of Jake who just glared at him.

“Wha- where the hell did you come from!” The swinging man was growling out angrily

“You can’t just cut yourself down.” Jake moved to the tree where the snare was wrapped and swung over, giving it more stability to pull bigger and heavier bodies. Jake may or may not have made it just a little too strong. “You’ll just hurt yourself further.”

“Yeah, well what do you fucking suggest!”

“Untie yourself..” Jake pulled at the ropes at the base, untying it. It was harder and tighter than what it usually was, probably because of the weight, but he got eventually. He held onto the end of the rope, tight, as he unwrapped it around the tree.

“Alright, get ready to catch your friend.” He watched as the other three took to support the squirming friend. The pink one was holding his head up, making sure he wouldn’t land on his neck. The other two were making sure that he would fall on top of them instead of the ground. They must be close for the struggling man to let them hold him like that.

“Ready.” It was followed by a roar of yeses.

Jake let the rope slowly slip out of his hand, one hand over the other, lowering the boy as gently as he could into the other teenager's hands. He glanced back when he felt the rope go loose. Joey had unwrapped the snare from his ankle and pulled the moaning boy into his lap. The other two had their faces squished up against his trying to look into the cussing man's eyes. They were mumbling incoherently with each other.

Jake took the time to raviel up the long piece of rope before moving to check the other’s ankle. It was still in the shoe so it was hard to see, but it was definitely swollen. It would be hard to walk on. He certainly won’t be able to make a 13 mile journey back to town to get healed up in Claudette’s shop. He’ll have to take him back to the cabin to patch him up and find a way to get them back down there.

He signed, finally drawing the group's attention. Joey was still cradling the man in his arms, watching him warily. Or at least it seemed that way, it was hard seeing behind the masks. The pink haired one was shaking, the other girl was softly holding her hand.

“It’s definitely swollen, probably sprained or twisted. But, it’s not broken, if it was then you would either be screaming right now or passed out from the pain.”

“I-I ain’t no pu-pussy-” The man fell back into the grasp of his friend when he tried to push himself up, muffling his cry of pain by biting his tongue. 

“Frank!” Joey's disapproving voice was whisper yelled into the direction of… Frank.

“I wasn’t saying you were, but I don’t think you’ve ever broken your ankle before. It’s a lot worse than a broken arm or leg.”

“Wi-will he be okay..” The pink ones soft and shaky voice whispered out into the air, barely being heard above Franks huffing breaths.

“Yeah, he won’t be able to walk long distances for awhile, but you guys can come to my cabin to get patched up and stay the night if you want. You're definitely not getting back to town before dark.” Jake glanced up to the already darkening sky. It takes around half a day to get back to the village, and that’s when you can see and walk correctly.

“How do we know that we can trust you?” The other girl’s voice was demanding as she squeezed the pink one's hand. “What if you're a pedo or something.”

Jake rolled his eyes, “You're like 4 or 5 years younger than me, I don’t want your bodies. If anything I would just kill you to keep you out of my forest.”

They glanced at each other, clearly deciding something. “You’ll help Frank, right?” It was the pink one again, “And you’ll feed us?”

Jake paused, feed them? He guessed that he did have enough, but where did that come from? That made it sound like he was taking in a stray dog. He could, he guessed.

“..yeah…” Jake paused before moving to check the rest of the traps along the trail leaving the bewildered group behind, “Just let me go check for something to eat.”

He came back a few minutes later, two dead rabbits tied to the belt in his pants, freeing up his hands. It looked like they had gotten the protesting man up onto his feet, well foot. He was leaning heavily upon Joey, arm thrown around his shoulder. The other two were hanging around them, talking softly together.

The pink one squeaked at the rabbits, jumping and then turning away to not look at them. Jake felt bad for showing her them, he’d have to make stew or something else today. Something that won’t remind her of the poor rabbits that she was eating. Jake, himself, had to do that the first few weeks he did this.

“Follow me, I'll make sure to slow down.”

“Uh, okay.” They began to follow the path back. It was getting darker by the minute but if they make good time they’ll make it back just before the last lines of the sun shrink down below the horizon.

* * *

They did not make good time. They had to keep stopping every few seconds for Joey to readjust Frank, or to let him rest so that he wouldn’t hurt his ankle any further. It didn’t matter because now it was dark and they could barely see their own hands in front of their faces.

Jake signed as he pulled the flashlight out of his pocket, turning it on to let the others see the trail in front of them. They were maybe half a mile away from his house, so close and yet so far.

“Ugh, how much longer!” Frank’s arrogant voice called out to Jake.

“Not much…”

“That’s what you said an hour ago!”

“Well, I expected us to be there by now, just keep walking.” he continued on, ignoring any and all attempts to make conversation. They were so close, just a little more and he could have dinner. Jake hasn’t eaten since yesterday morning. He was too busy trying to fix his roof before the storm that was coming in a few days to be worried about eating.

It happens a lot, the not eating thing. He doesn’t really do it on purpose, but sometimes at night he just lays awake realizing that he hasn’t eaten in awhile. It was probably because he couldn’t eat a lot before he moved away from home.

His dad ran the house, what he says goes, or at least that's how it was for is mom and brother. They would never go against his word, even if it meant that one of them would be beaten black and blue. You followed what he said, you just did.

One day his dad said that he couldn’t eat unless he gets a good grade on his homework. Every night he would bring it out to show it to his family at dinner. If it was above an 80 he’d get to eat with them, if it wasn’t, which it usually was, then they’d force him into his room and make him ‘study’. It eventually got to where Jake wouldn’t even show up to dinner, knowing he wouldn’t make the cut, instead he would sneak out of his room every night to grab a snack.

He got caught a few times, whether it be eating in his room or the wrappers being found in his trash, it didn’t matter, he just hated the consequences. He’d be left in his room to ‘think about what he did’ after his dad beat him till he bled, crying just made it worse. It's why he learned to hide the noises.

“Oh, Thank Fuck.” Frank's gleeful voice broke Jake’s thoughts, bringing him back to the present. They were in front of his cabin, the light in Jake's hand swung around the area checking for predators. A couple of badgers were checking out his house earlier. When there wasn’t any sign of them he moved to open the door for his tired companion.

The inside wasn’t very big, it was a one room house. It didn’t have a bathroom, but the kitchen took up half the space to make up for it. Jake was glad for that, it took a lot to prepare just a tiny meal. The counter is U shaped, clearly dividing the house into two sections. One, of course, being the kitchen, the other was Jake’s bedroom.

Jake had a rickety old bed, but he didn’t mind. In fact he loved it so much better than the pristine one back home in his old room. Below, at the foot rest, was a chest full of Jake’s clothes. It gave him splinters every time he opened it, but it was still nice. Up against the wall was a wardrobe, Jake kept his hunting and gathering gear in it. Below in the shelves he kept extra blankets and sheets, stuff for when winter came. There was a fireplace in the kitchen, to both cook and keep the cabin warm when it starts to snow.

Overall Jake loves his tiny house.

“Holy fuck, this place sucks.” Frank was hobling to sit on one of the stools in the kitchen, at the counter. He was glancing around the place, a pinched and disgruntled look on his face.

“Don’t be rude!” The other girl, Julie, was smacking the back of Franks head. Frank reached up to rub at it as she sat in the stool next to him. They introduced themselves when they were walking back.

“Yeah, Frank. He’s helping us out.” Joey was rubbing the back of his head, sending Jake apologetic looks as he sat down with Suzie.

“I think it’s nice.” Suzies was tucking her head down nervously. Her voice was soft, delicate compared to the others.

“Do you want food or not-” Jake pulled the rabbits off his belt disgruntledly. Here he was feeding them and they were making fun of his living spaces. He made sure to block out the cuts, he was making to skin the rabbit, with his body. Suzie seemed squirmish with these kinds of things, and it wouldn’t be good if she refused to eat it. They had a long way back. 

“Yes Please!” 

He let them chat with each other as he cut up the meat and brought the water to boil. He dug out the herbs and spices with the vegetables. As he cut the vegetables he dumped the meat into the pot. He was making a thick meat stew. It wasn’t what he was planning, but it would still be good. There would definitely be enough for everyone, there may even be leftovers later.

“Alright, let's get to your ankle.” Jake pulled out his box of bandages and ointments as he sat himself by Franks feet. He’ll let the food cook while he gets this done.

“Finally.” Jake just rolled his eyes, Frank was impatient as always.

“Frank, man, he’s literally got your life in his hands. Don’t be rude.” He sent up a thankful look to Joey, at least someone was trying to be nice.

Frank just huffed, not glancing in the others direction, but he did duck his head a little. 

“I’m going to need to take your shoe off. It might hurt, but try not to move.” Frank tensed up, which wasn’t the best, but he followed Jake's orders. He grasped the show between his hands and then started to slowly shimmy it off. Untying the shoe laces when he realized it would help.

“Oh, Fuck! Mother Fucker, that hurts.” Jake screams filled the air. Jake thought he might be exaggerating it a little bit, but everyone's pain tolerance was different so he couldn’t really judge him.

“Yup.” Jake pulled back a little, realizing that the other boy wasn’t wearing socks, when he was trying to take a hike in the forest. Who does that!? Doesn’t he know that’s how you get blisters!?

“Is- is it broken?” Susie asked while Jake squished the meat around the ankle gently, ignoring Frank’s protesting as he checked for a break. Just like he thought, he didn’t feel anything, just the swollen mass around where the rope burned his skin. He felt around the back, checking the achilles tendon. It was still there, just a little stretched.

“Hmm, no. Just sprained, twisted a little.” He moved back to grab the bandages and burn ointment. It’s the best he could do. Support the swollen ankle and make sure the burn wouldn’t rash up, “You’ll have to call someone to get you.”

He watched as they glanced at each other and then shook their heads. Something is going on, something there not telling Jake. “What?” He started to smear the cold paste onto Frank's ankle, hiding his smirk when Frank hissed back in shock.

“Uhh…” Frank stalled for a second letting the others come up with an excuse.

“We can’t.” Joey was fidgitating, glancing over to Susie and Julie, tryin to get a story straight with them. 

“...Why”

They glanced at each other and then Susie raised her head and pushed her mask up. She was young, maybe 16 at most. “We’re running away.” Oh, oh that’s fine. Jake didn’t really care if they were. I mean he’d be hypocritical if he did.

“Susie!” Julie’s harsh voice made Susie jump back.

“You can’t just tell him that!” Frank continued on kicking out a little, making Jake cuss at him from where he was finalizing the bandage.

“He’s going to send us back! You know we can’t go back!” Joey slammed his hand onto the counter making Susie squeak and duck back. He stopped and hesitated for a second and then carried on.

“Alright, alright. Stop, I don’t give a shit.” Jake moved to his feet, box of medicine in hand. He put it back in the cupboard where it was before.

“Wha-” Frank was cut off by Julie, “You don’t?”

“Nope.” Jake didn’t think running away was strictly a bad thing. There are times in a person's life when they need to get away. Whether that's permanent or not is up to the person themselves, “why would I?”

They were all silent for a moment. Jake just continued to stirr for a few moments, letting them get over the revelation. It must be hard to hear someone just tell them that they didn’t care, they must have been told their entire life that doing these kinds of things were bad. Jake knew it took a long time before he realized that that was wrong.

“Well, everyone does. Why don’t you?” Joey swung around to stare at him as he added salt to the stew in front of him.

“Hmm, I guess it’s because I know there are certain situations that need running from.” Jake himself had to run away from home. Some situations are bad, kids need a way out, and that was one of them. They just need to make sure that they have a place to go and a way to get there.

“R-Really?” Susie's small and hesitant voice is hopeful. 

“Yeah.”

“So you wouldn’t mind if we stayed here.” It was Julie, her voice boomed almost commanding.

“Uh, no.” Like Jake said he didn’t want to care for kids. He forgets to eat and can’t get to sleep at normal times of the night, how would he even take care of them. Not to mention he only had one bed, “My house isn’t built for 5 people.”

He watched as their faces dropped, a building guilt bubbling in his guts. “But, I don’t mind if you hang out in the woods if you want.” It was the best compromise he could give.

“I know people need somewhere to hang out and de-stress.” Jake remembered the first time he snuck out of the house to go play at the park. It was the best day of his life, “And if you ever want to get something to eat you can just come here…”

It was silent for a few minutes, Jake had thought the conversation was over when he heard the almost silent, “Thank You.” Jake just nodded and carried on to cook.

* * *

Jake regrets ever letting the little shits on to his property.

Don’t get him wrong, they’re nice and funny, but they were pranksters. You don’t know how many times Jake had exited his house to find a water bucket dropping onto his head, or to go collect his catches to find a rock or stick snared up in them. He exited his house yesterday thinking he’d have to patch up his roof again only to find Frank and Joey banking some of his tools together.

And they were hanging around the cabin constantly, asking for food and drinks all the time. He never refused, but sometimes he just wants some alone time. It was only then did he come up with the idea. Maybe it will get them to leave him alone for a while.

It took a month to do, a very long time to work on a project. It took so long because of the materials he needed. There was a hardware store in town, but he needed to order them offline because they didn’t have the wood and nails necessary to build it. And when they did come in he had to get the owner to drive it up to him because he didn’t have a car. He then had to carry each piece all the way to where it was happening, half way across his forest.

The next rough spot was trying to hide it from the nosy teens. He hid the plans under his floorboards, they kept checking under his mattress for porn mags and in his wardrobe for crack and pot. Like he would have those things, just because he lived in the middle of the woods didn’t mean he was a stoner. He only managed to work on it at night, which slowed the work down because he had to use a flashlight to see what he was doing.

But, finally, it was done.

Jake looked up into the three trees. Between them was a treehouse, he used them to stabilize the structure. It was simple, just a little four walled house with a slatted roof. It had an actual door and windows. There wasn’t any glass but he made them to where you could close them if it was windy or raining. It even had a fireplace for when it would get cold, albeit a small one. He didn’t want them to accidentally burn it down.

It had a balcony all the way around the house, giving them plenty of spaces to hang out or look around. He even installed a place to put a bucket, so that they could get their things up into their tree house easier. You had to climb a ladder to get up into it, one that they could pull up if they ever needed to, he didn’t know why, but they had the option too if they needed it. He left it unpainted so that they could choose the colors they wanted, if they wanted it painted that is. It looked kind of nice unpainted too.

He made sure to buy some futons and blankets so that they could sleep in it. He even found an old shelf in town and brought it back so that they could store their things safely. He didn’t know what they’d put up there, but it’s theirs to decide. 

Overall Jake’s pretty happy with it.

* * *

“Woah!” Frank ran up to the ladder, softly petting it and staring up at the balcony with amazement in his eyes, “This is for us?”

“Yup, it’s all yours.” Jake crossed his arms as he leaned up against a tree. Susie was next to him, marvelling at the tree house.

“Holy fuck…” Joey was dancing below where the bucket rake was, trying to see what it was from the weird angle.

“We finally have a base you guys.” Julie was jumping around excited and happy. She kept trying to jump up and reach the edge, but seeing as it was almost 8 feet above her head she wasn’t going to get it.

“C-can we?” Susie drew his attention to her, softly pointing up, asking. Jake smiled softly at her.

“Well, yeah, it’s your guyses now. You can do whatever you want with it.” He wasn’t going to let them see it and not give it to them. He made this for them, not it was theirs, if they wanted to go jump around at the top let them.

Jake couldn’t help but smile as they all raced each other to get up the later, almost falling off a few times. He’s glad he made it able to support all their weight combined. One after another they leaped onto the balcony and disappeared inside to check it out. He could hear their loud footsteps as they jumped inside of it and pushed each other.

Jake got a funny feeling in his chest, it was good but weird. He liked making the 4 teenagers happy, even if they terrorise him to all living hell.

Jake eyes caught Susie's pink hair as she moved to stare at him from the balcony, she held onto the fencing as she yelled-

“Thank You!”

It was loud, all the birds in the vicinity flew away, creating colorful arches into the air, and the forest went silent for a second. But as it continued, hesitating a few seconds, Jake just shook his head as he let the biggest smile he’s ever had spread onto his face. He just pushed himself off his tree and moved to travel back to his cabin, letting the teens enjoy their new tree house.

Jake didn’t mind if they came to his house after that, happy to let them in and eat all his food.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three!

Jake had reluctantly walked back to the town for more supplies a couple of days later. It had been maybe 2 days before the legion decided to expand their hideout. But, because they didn’t have any money, decided to use Jake’s rope and other materials that he had around the house as building materials.

Jake was still cussing them out as he left for town, a backpack slung over his shoulder ready to grab and bring back as much as he could. Jake left with the request to bring back cookies, like he would by them a treat after they used up his supplies.

It was already midday by the time he had made it into town, it was pretty hot that day. Sweat was already soaking the back of his shirt and head. His damp hair sticking to his face. Jake was about to head into the hardware store to pick up more rope, nails, and other metal things he needed when there was a sudden yell-

“Hey, Hey kid! Get your ass up here, I want you to do something for me!” Jake glanced around until he saw the two guys sitting across the street. One was wearing an old sweater and the other hand sunglasses on. They were waving at him to get over there.

Jake pointed at himself, making sure that they wanted him. “Yeah, you! Come on, we won’t fucken bite!” Jake let out a groan as he glanced over at the hardware store. Might as well see what they want, it’s not like the store was going anywhere.

He made sure to look both ways before crossing, there were a few people on the street, but they were all spread out, doing their own things. Jake wished he could be doing his own thing.

“Ah, ada boy!” The older of the two capped his hand as he stood up with the one in sunglasses. “The name Bill, this is Ace. We want you to climb these stores behind us.”

Jake stalled for a second, trying to wrap his head around what he just said. “Wh- Why!?”

Bill glanced over to Ace for a second, a grin plastering to his face, “Because I bet that you could and Ace here thinks you won’t do it.”

“Yeah, well, he’s right.”

“Oh come on kid, If you do it I’ll make sure to make my grand kid give you a discount on whatever you're buying, he’s a little shit anyways.'' Bill pointed to the hardware store behind him. Jake let that sink in, he probably needed it. He did have a lot saved up, but making that tree house was expensive. But was it really worth it, the buildings behind them had to be at least 50 feet high. If he falls he’ll definitely break a leg, if not his skull.

“Uhh-”

“Listen, kid, you need to get up there. And make sure you get to the very top.” Bill pushed him towards the wall, making it to where Jake couldn’t refuse even if he wanted to 

Jake hummed, it would be possible. It had hand holds, but they were going to be slippery because of his sweaty hands, and not to mention hot. But he was already there, why not.

“Fine.” He heard Bill laugh and pat his back as Ace groaned.

Jake ignored their mumbles as they argued with each other. He began his climb after he dropped his backpack to the ground, making sure to keep his wallet on himself. It was hard and scratchy. The wall poked into his skin making it peel and crack, yeah definitely painful.

He was half way up when he heard the sirens, it almost made him drop to the ground, which had to be at least 25 feet away. That, that would have been bad. Jake drew in a shaky breath as he glanced down at Ace and Bill. Bill was staring up at him, waving at him to continue climbing as Ace nervously glanced around.

Jake took a steady breath and began to climb higher, he was already in trouble what could be going higher cause. He really needed that discount.

He had gotten maybe 15 feet up before the police car pulled in, turning off the sirens as they pushed themselves out of the car. Jake couldn’t really see what was happening, having to focus on keeping his body from slumping down and falling, but he could hear it. To lod clanks as the doors shut behind them. Jake could feel the nervous bile at the back of his throat.

“H-Holy Fuck!” The voice was deep and surprised, “What the hell Bill, I told you to stop telling kids to climb the stores. Feng and Nea almost broke their legs last time!”

“Ah, they were fine.”

“Nea fell 30 feet, and Feng slipped when she got to the top!” The voice growled as Jake swayed from the sudden wind, it brushed up against his back making the sweat cool. Yeah that was terrifying. “Get him down, now!”

“Hmm, I think he’s doing fine.” Jake was not doing ‘fine’, in fact he was going to throw up, he felt the bile rising in his throat making it raw and itchy. Jake never thought he had a fear of heights, well, now he does if the shaky feeling in his limbs was anything to say about it. The ground was so far away. Or maybe it was just the fear of falling to his death.

“Does that matter, he looks like he’s going to puke, Bill!” It didn’t help that people were yelling, distracting him from trying not to fall. He almost slipped again, pushing him onto the very tip of his fingers before he readjusted his grip and pulled himself back again.

“Hmm”

“Bill!” God damn it, will they just shut up! Jake was already panicking, he didn’t need to think about being arrested on top of that. 

“We’ll You Guys Shut Up!” Jake barely had enough time to yell before one of his hands slipped making him dangle a good 48 feet off the ground from one hand. Jake couldn’t help the squeak that escaped his throat. Fuck.

Jake ignored the gasps and yells from below, apparently while Jake wasn’t looking a crowd had crowded up around the bottom, instead he just focused on trying to grab the ledge again. When he managed to pull himself back up to it he realized that he only had around 3-4 more feet left.

Finally, oh thank god. 

Jake pushed himself up a little faster, trying to get away from the overwhelming thought of falling. He probably shouldn’t have rushed himself because in the next few seconds, right after Jake set his fingers on the roof, Jake could feel the brick slipping out from underneath his fingers and he had a weird dropping feeling in his stomach. The howling wind rushed past his ears, blocking out any other sound. It was only then did he realize he was falling.

Jake pushed his hands out, desperately trying to grab a ledge or crevasses, but all his hands did was scrap against the wall and get bruised up by the sides. It painfully tore at his skin, ripping and peeling it off. Until, finally one of his hands managed to get some perchas on a window ledge, maybe 15 feet from the ground. Jake let out a gasp as his arm wrenched against the grip, popping with a large crack and making him let go and fall the final length down.

He blacked out as he hit the hard ground, pulling his hurt arm desperately to his chest before the overwhelming pain set in.

* * *

“Hey, hey can you hear me son.” Jake could barely squeeze his eyes open before a sudden bright light shined into them, making him jerk back from whoever was holding him. Holding him, hold… him.

Jake jumped back to the present wrangling himself out of the hold of whoever was touching him. Fuck, some one was touching, had touched him. He was so defenseless, so out of it anything could have happened. He should have known better! Fuck!

Jake was trying to drag himself away, but there was deep and unsettling pain in his arm. It slowed his progress and made the world around him warp and change. Then suddenly it was there again, the touching, on his fucking leg. Trying to calm him and pull him back. 

Jake jerked back away from it again, “Don’t Fucking touch me!” He kicked at whoever it was rolling onto his back to pull his damaged and limp arm back to his chest. He needed to get away, get somewhere safe.

“Hey, Hey it’s okay. Shh, it's okay. I won’t touch you, just breathe okay, breathe for me.” Jake curled into himself, trying to ignore the soothing voice. It was fake, it was always fake.

“Hey, please listen to me okay. I won’t touch you but we need to get your shoulder back into place okay.” Jake just took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart and find out where he was and what happened to him. As he breathed new things came into focus.

Jake was lying on the ground, on his right side curled over his arm. He could tell that his head was bleeding because it was dripping into his eyes and making a small puddle around his head. Maybe that's why everything was so blurry and weird. There was a crowd around him, they were being held back by a female police officer, her long black hair was shining from the oppressive sun overhead.

“Hey there you go, you're going to be okay.” Someone moved behind Jake, outside of his vision. He tried to roll over to see who it was but the sudden movement made the pain in his head spike. Jake gasped as his entire body shuddered against the pain.

“Ah, don’t move okay. It’s Jake, right, well your friend, Claudette, is coming here as quickly as she can, okay.” Claudette, the girl who tried to use him as a practise dummy. The one that liked touching…

Jake groaned again, forcing himself to sit up. He swallowed down the pain as he took stock of his injuries. “I- I told you not to move... god damn it.” He wobbled a little not having anything to stabilize himself. His arm hurt, badly, but it wasn’t broken. He could feel the bones grind together in his socket. It must have been dislocated.

His head hurt alot too. He can feel the already sizable lump forming on the back. It must have cracked open if the blood was to say anything, he couldn’t tell how bad it was. Head wounds always bleed a lot more than any other wound on the body. He probably has a concussion, though.

His back and legs ached but they were movable, but everytime he tried to twist his rips would protest. Jake swept his hand over them carefully, cringing back when he felt something crackle with pain. Must have cracked his ribs. 

It’ll be okay, he’s done worse in shorter amounts of time. He’s patched himself up when he had these kinds of injuries before. And he was only 12 when he started doing it too. This is fine, everything is fine. Jake took a deep breath as he tried to push himself up, only to be pushed back down again.

“Alright, that's enough. You're gonna stay here while Claudette checks you.” Jake glared at the hand resting on his shoulder, and then up to the police officer. He was touching him, again.

“Listen she's only a few minutes away, okay.” The man, his name tag sad Officer Tapp, leaned down to crouch in front of him, “Just stay here.”

Jake just continued glared at him, he wouldn’t have been able to get past him. Not to mention Jake was pretty sure that the other officer was going to pepper spray him if he tried to get away. She kept glaring at him menaciling. Her hands covering over her belt, twitchingly.

It was only maybe 3 to 4 minutes before Claudette showed up with a med kit in hand, apologising for being late and hurting to run over to them. As soon as she set her eyes on him she immediately started to panic. Almost throwing down the kit to get to him.

“Oh thank god, Claudette.” Tapp harshly patted his shoulder, “You don’t know how much trouble I’ve had with him. He doesn’t listen at all.”

“Oh my god, Jake! Are you okay!” Claudette opened her med kit as she sporadically whined about his condition.

Jake just glared at her when she tried to reach for him, growling out a no when she didn’t get the hint. Claudette jumped back, and worriedly bit her lip, she pulled back and then straightened up.

“Jake I can't help you if you won’t let me touch you.” She swept her hands through her hair. Jake just glanced down into his lap. This is bad, he can’t let them touch him. They hurt him.

“Oh Jake, I promise I’ll be gentle as I can be, we need to get you help!” Claudette was nice, but so was his brother. It always hurts when they try to help.

“Jake please. Please you might have brain trauma or have internal bleeding.” Jake’s done this before, he can do it again. He doesn’t need their help. Not ever again...

“Please…” her voice was shallow and pleading, grating on Jake's ears. Fuck. Jake opened himself up, not looking back up as he nodded. The short shakes made his head swim, it was definitely a concussion.

“Oh thank you, thank you.” She immediately scooted closer to Jake, pressing her hands against his sore shoulder. Jake hissed when she pulled it up, carefully feeling around the bones, checking for a brake that wasn’t there and missing the obvious dislocated.

She jumped back when Jake pushed her off. He pointed to the socket, “Out.”

“Oh, oh sorry…” She glanced around for a second before moving to grab Tapps attention, “Uhh, could you help me.”

“Uh, yeah, sure. Just tell me what to do.” he glanced nervously around, rubbing the back of his head. Obviously out of his element.

“Just get back behind him and brace him for me please. This is going to hurt, so we don’t want him jumping back.” Claudette moved to pick up his arm and move it into place to loge it back in. She gave Jake and Tapp a soft look, smiling weakly.

“Ah, o-okay.” Jake tensed up as he felt the older man grab his good shoulder. He was pressed to his side, keeping him from moving away from the others touching.

“Okay, Jake. Just breathe for me alright. This is going to hurt, but it’ll feel alot better when it’s back in…” She tensed up, crouching higher to get more leverage. She hesitated when he didn’t answer back, glancing at him with apprehension, but continued to do what she was going to do.

“Okay, on three..” She locked eyes with Tapp, her only support in this procedure.

“One,” Jake took a deep breath, forcing his body to relax beneath Tapp’s hands. He felt the other man jump in surprise when he did.

“Two…” Jake held in the breath, calming his heart. He remembers doing this by himself with his bed frame. It was a lot worse than back then, he had a broken leg and no way to keep in his screams.

“Three!” He finally let the breath escape as Claudette pushed his arm back into the socket causing the searing pain to leap up into his body. Jake let the scream die in his throat as he bit his lip.

Jake took a silent gasping breath as Tapp and Claudette pushed themselves back to give him room to breathe. “You did very well Jake, everything's going to be okay now alright.” Claudette was stroking his arm softly, tring to give comfort. In all honesty it was just making Jake panic even more.

Jake closed his eyes as he laid on the dirty concrete floor, feeling the warm blood still gushing out of his head run over his eyelids. Mmm, that was gross. He was going to need to fix that as soon as he wakes back up.

* * *

Jake comes to in a bed, not his though. It was too sturdy and soft to be his. 

Not to mention he didn’t recognize the room. It was painted a pastel pink, with a baby blue lining. It was rather small, but there was a window to the left of him, open, letting in a cool morning breeze. There was a chair next to the bed, almost hidden behind the large bedside table to the right of him.

There was a wardrobe/closet kind of thing in front of the bed, he could see his clothes handing in it from where one of the doors was opened. Jake glanced down at himself, cringing as it made his head sing and his vision blacken. He was wearing a white button up and a pair of grey sweatpants. With his thumb he pulled the waistband up, relaxing when he saw his own boxers staring back at him.

At least they didn’t completely strip him, that would have been embarrassing. He would never be able to look at their faces again. Jake barely remembers what happened. Just the fast movements of falling and then pain. There were flashes of Claudette and… Tack- Taik, uh… Tapp! That was the police officer's name.

He doesn’t remember anything else. How long has he been out?

Jake slowly pushed himself up, sitting himself back against the headboard as he got over the overwhelming in his brain. His ribs protested as well, bringing the sudden memory of him trying to drag himself away from Tapp. Jake rubbed at his chest, feeling the bandages under the button up shirt, well, at least he doesn’t have to do that himself.

Jake swung his feet over the edge of the bed, going to get up only to be stopped by the door opening with a soft click. Behind the door where two women, one was carrying a tray of food and medicine. He watched as one of them jumped back, almost knocking the other one back, when she saw him.

“Oh Thank God, Claudette he’s awake!” The one with black hair pushed the one with the tray out of the way to shove a camera in his face. “Look everyone, it seems that our little patient has finally woken up!”

“Feng don’t be rude!” Tray lady walked in, she made a move to swat at Feng, but the other girl just jumped away laughing. “He doesn’t even know what you're talking about.”

“Oh come on Kate, it’s fine.”Feng was filming the length of the bed, grinning down at Jake like she was a shark and he was a fish. “It’s not like I’m hurting him!”

“Uh, where am I?”

“Hmm, oh, well you're in Claudette’s guest bedroom.” Kate was setting down the tray next to him on the bedside table. She moved to sit next to him on the bed, ignoring Jakes protesting.

“Hey, it’s mine and Megs too.” Feng looked up from the camera view, disapproval and objection in her voice, “Just cause I’m young don’t mean I don’t own a part of this house!”

Kate laughed under her breath, hiding it beneath her hand, “Sorry-”

She was cut off by Claudette who rushed in through the door, making a loud bang as she slammed the part-way open door against the wall. She was huffing and had a crazed look on her face. There were remnants of something green on her fingers as she pushed up her skewed glasses.

“Is he okay!?”

She immediately went to him. Ignoring all the attempts that Jake took not to get her to touch him. She kept mumbling incoherent things under breath. Jake just wished she’d stop  _ touching _ him.

“Claudette he’s fine, He’s awake actually.” Feng was cuckling under her breath as she filled a shot of Claudette frantically checking Jake. “Yeah, my friends are going to love this, they’ve been enthralled with his story ever since I mentioned it to them.”

“Uhh,” Jake froze, what the hell was she talking about? Did she film him while she was sleeping, did people know that he fell. Oh god, that’s fucking embarrising. Jake tried to hide the blush that suddenly sprang to his face, but couldn’t help wincing when his shoulder and chest twanged in pain at the sudden movement.

“Feng, you shouldn’t do that.” Kate reached over to try and take the camera out of her hands, but she just leaped away from her at every turn. Jake tried to swallow the dryness in his throat, almost coughing when he did.

“Eh, it’s not like I told them his name.” Feng just brushed it off as she moved to the other side of the bed, away from Kate.

Jake couldn't help but hiss out in both pain and displeasure as Claudette moved to sit behind him, pushing him forward to check the bandages around his head. He was going to protest when he spotted his clothes again, making a weird disgruntled face towards anyone in the room who looked.

“You okay…” Claudette leaned forward into his space again, only backing up again when Jake tried to lean away.

“Yeah, just… uh” Jake pulled the white button up away from his frame, glaring at how the sleeve seemed to slip over his wrist when angled it down. Jake likes fitted clothes, it’s annoying to try and push up the sleeves everytime he needed to do something.

“Oh, uh, well…” Claudette paused, nervously looking up to Kate, “We had David and Dwight help change you… “

“I wanted to do it by myself but Claudette wouldn’t let me.” Kate went on to further explain, “We needed to get you out of them to change your bandages and make sure any cuts you had wouldn’t get infected anyways so we just got Dwight to lown us a few of his. Sorry if it’s a little big, he was the only one who was closest to you in size.”

‘Yeah, you're surprisingly tiny for a guy, y’know!” Feng bursted in, happy to explain what the others wouldn’t say.

“Feng!” Kate was trying to get to her again, almost trying to leap over the bed to get to her.

“What!” Feng pushed herself into the corner of the room, almost knocking over the lamp on the other side of the bed. She was waving her foot at Kate, trying to get her to stay away, “I think it’s an accomplishment. It’s fun being small.”

“That doesn't make it nice honey. You just don’t say those kinds of things!” Kate gave up and decided to just glare at her, her arms were crossed against her chest.

“It’s fine, I don’t mind…” Jake just didn’t want them to yell anymore it was starting to make his head hurt. Instead of letting Claudette press her fingers into his hair to check the wound at the back of his head he moved to stand up.

“Whoa don’t get up. You were out for two days!” Kate pushed him down, an expression of bewilderment and worry clouding her face.

Jake just hummed disapprovingly, he didn’t want to wait in bed all day. He needs to get back to the cabin. He had things to do, like setting snares and making sure the legion didn’t try and burn down his house. He struggled to get up again beneath her hands.

“Don’t make us restrain you.” She said it like a warning, one Jake didn’t want to mess with. He glanced to the side, considering his options. If he needed to he could always just sneak out later...

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” she stepped away when Jake relaxed into the bed again, finally letting Claudette search for the wound.

“Hey do you mind if I ask you some questions!” Feng suddenly sprang the question, earning several groans for it, “Like an interview kind of.”

Jake paused letting the sentence absorb into his brain, “...Uh, I guess.”

“Hell Yeah!” Feng sprang from her corner and actually hopped over the bed with the energy of a rabbit being chased by a fox, “One sec, I got to get the cameras!”

Kate let out a deep disappointed sigh, “Ugh, sorry about her, she doesn't know her manners yet.” She glanced over at him, apologetically.

Jake watched her for a second, wondering why she cared. He let out a low hum. He didn’t particularly mind, it’s fun seeing other people happy anyways. If interviewing him for some reason makes her happy then let her.

“You don’t talk much do you.” Kate took a moment to observe him, and then moved to unbutton his shirt. Jake protestest, swinging his arms around to swat at her hands. She just ignored him, brushing them away like he was a child throwing a fit. “Alright! Arms up as best as you can.”

Jake glared at her, crossing his arms around his chest, ignoring the startling pain. She just sat up, pulling her hands to copy his pose and sent an even worse glare at him. Jake paused, feeling his body grow nervous and pliable under the stare, he hated that part of him. The part that gave in too easily...

“Good.” Kate was pressing her fingers into his ribs, not hard, but firm. Each time she pressed into his sensitive skin it made his ribs burn and sting. Jake could definitely see where the skin had swollen and bruised against the fall.

“I'm sorry, this may sting a little Jake.” Claudette spread something cold and slimy against his head wound, ”but when we get done you’ll feel better!”

“I’ve dealt with worse..” Jake bit back a wince and a yelp against the sting and the touches, he definitely felt worse than this. It wasn’t even a two on his scale factor, “It’s not a big deal.”

“No-Not a big deal!” Kate pulled back, trying not to accidentally squish his ribs in anger, “If you didn't have a cracked head then I would smack you around the back of the head!”

“Jake, a coma is a big thing.” Claudette tried to reason with him, softly trying to convey their concern for him. “You're gonna need a lot of supervision. We would have even taken you to the hospital, or called the doctor, but the security wouldn’t let anyone through.” Jake knew coma’s were supposed to be a big deal, but he’s already experienced being knocked unconscious in his past. He always woke up fine. Yeah he got bad headaches and he needed to develop his walking or writing skills a few times, but it wasn’t too bad.

In fact being in a coma or being knocked unconscious meant that his father wouldn’t try to beat him for a few weeks, probably worried he may accidentally kill him or something. To him they were life savers. He once fell into a coma for two weeks after his father threw him down the stairs and his dad left him alone for 2 amazing months after it. It was fantastic, probably the best time he had during his childhood. If you can ignore the amount of time it took him to recover that is...

“I’m fine!” Jake waved them off, dismissively. He’s had worse, he can get through this.

Kate groaned loudly, “Ugh, you're as bad as Feng!” She began to rewrap the bandages around his waist again.

When they had both completed their work they slowly extracted themselves from the bed, leaving Jake to sit by his lonesome. They were beginning to collect their supplies when an ecstatic Feng rushed in with a few camera’s bundled under her arm. She rushed to push the others out of the room. Ignoring their protests.

She then began to mumble excitedly about angle and fans as she set up a few cameras around the room. One directly in front of Jake, another in the corner of the room, and finally one on the bedside table. It was kinda overwhelming, Jake’s never done good in front of cameras or large groups of people.

Feng flopped herself on the bed next to Jake, “Okay, are you ready!” She was smiling up to him.

“Uh, sure…” Jake scratched the back of his head, he's never really done this kind of thing before. What is he supposed to do, anyways?

Feng sat up and looked at the camera, “Okay, just answer my questions the best as you can and we’ll be done in a jiffy!” She turned to face him a little bit.

“Okay.” Jake could do that, that seemed pretty easy.

“Alright,” She moved to wave at the camera, smoothly like she wasn’t just talking to a piece of equipment, “Hello everybody! Here we are, today our coma friend has woken up!”

Feng glanced at him, rolling her eyes when he didn’t do anything, “Say hi!” She pointed to the camera with her hand.

“Uh, hello.” Jake waved back to the blinking light, nervously glancing at Feng with wide eyes.

She chuckled out a laugh at his fumblement, “Alright first question! What is your name.”

“Jake Park.” That was pretty easy, he knew his own name afterall.

“Interesting, I’m Ming Feng! Nice to meet you.” She threw out her hand to shake his, which he did, very hesitantly. It was very awkward.

“Okay, well, do you know what happened to you, and if you do can you clarify it for us.” She spoke loud and clearly, making her voice boom across the room. It kind of hurt Jakes ears, in a weird way.

It was kind of fuzzy, the memories of those moments, but they usually were when he got hurt. But Jake could basically tell what happened, “ Uh. Okay, so I was challenged by this guy, Bill, to climb the store fronts.”

“Yeah, Bill likes to do that.” Feng rests back against her hands, leaning backwards as she glances between him and the camera, “He’s trying to make it a tradition for all the young people in town to do it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, ever since David got drunk one night and did it.” She stared off into space like she was remembering a far away night, which she probably was if he thinks about it.

“H- Wait he was drunk?” Jake could barely do it, being able to see and being sober! How the hell did he manage to do that, there’s no way! Jake stared at Feng in disbelief.

“Yep, no worries though, nobody knows how he did it.” Feng sat back up, a smirk on her face, “ It’s a very hard climb, at least 5 people have fallen while doing it. Excluding you that is.”

Jake hummed to himself a little, no wonder why that police guy was so worried. It makes him wonder why Bill was trying to make all the kids in town do it. It sounds pretty dangerous, but if he has to guess, no one really cares that it is.

Feng glanced at the camera before adding “Although they weren’t as injured as you were.”

“Yeah, I fell pretty high up there.” Jake did, he remembered the panic, how he begged himself not to let go. He doesn’t think he’ll be climbing anything in the foreseeable future. It might make things harder for him back at the cabin, but he doesn’t think he’ll be able to do it.

“Really, how high! I wasn’t there to see it!” Feng leaned into him, excited again.

Jake paused, he didn’t know the exact height, “Uh, well, my fingers brushed the top, so, probably a good 50 feet.” He brought up his finger to show her how torn and bruised they were, “But I did catch myself on something falling back down.” He remembered being thankful only to get the fear again as it slipped his grip. He can’t remember what he caught though...

“Yeah, Rin, a friend of mine, said you caught yourself on a window seal.” 

Jake didn’t remember it, but he did remember the pain it gave him while it ripped out his joint from the socket, “It’s why my arm was dislocated, but I guess it’s better than dying.” Jake just shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

Feng let out a huffing laugh, “Yeah,” She looked up at the ceiling while she explained, “Nea’s pissed, you broke her record for falling the highest. She only made it to 30 feet!”

“Uh…”

Feng stole a glance at him, and then something sparked on her face, “Oh, I forgot. You don’t know her yet, do you?”

Jake shook his head, glancing at the camera again. He almost forgot that they were there. It’s actually pretty fun discussing things with her. She’s probably the most reasonable person he’s met over here.

“Hmm, Okay, next question!” Feng shook her head, pulling herself back up and asking, “Who are you?”

Jake paused, “What do you mean?”

“Like, where did you come from and what are you doing in this town?” She threw her hands in the air to represent the ‘town’.

Jake didn’t really know how to answer that, “Uhh… I moved here a few months ago to get away from my parents. Out in that old cabin in the woods.” He stopped, not knowing what else to say.

Feng saw him stuttering, she decided to help by asking, “Interesting, and why did you move to this cabin!”

“My parents.”

“Oh.” Feng just nodded at his answer, apparently understanding what he meant by it.

Jake coughed a little to the side awkwardly, “Yeah.”

Feng glanced up at the ceiling again, trying to figure out more questions, “Hmm, I should have planned for more questions in advance.” She suddenly looked at him, amusement glittering in her eyes, “Uh, So, your gay!”

Jake sputtered for a second, “W-What…” Where the hell did that come from!? And how did she even draw that conclusion!? I mean, what!?

Feng drew a sly grin at his reaction, “I mean, you didn’t even look at Kate’s boobs, and everybody does.” She took a moment to point at herself.

Jake stared at her in disbelief, okay maybe she isn’t the most reasonable person he’s met here, “Maybe I was trying to be polite. Just because I didn’t look at her boobs doesn’t mean I’m gay!” Jake barely even noticed, It’s not like she was trying to show them off. Just because Feng’s a pervert doesn’t mean he is!

“People who are polite nervously glance down at them, I’ve seen it, they don’t just obliviously ignore them.” She waved her hands in the air, distractingly, “That means you didn’t notice them, which is hard because they are humongous beings!”

He just stared at her, approvingly, “I’m not gay.”

“Are you sure about that?” She said it in a weird voice, like she was quoting something.

“...What do you- uh, what?” Feng rolled her eyes when he asked, obviously not convinced of him being straight.

She stared directly into the camera before moving to look at him, “I mean, do you look at guys the same way you look at girls?” Her voice was pitched to the side, trying to at least understand him and why he was saying it.

Jake just stared at her, “I look at everybody the same way.” It’s true, he doesn’t really see a difference between both genders. They’re all the same to him, and neither of them sound sexier than the other, or sexy at all actually.

“Hmm, maybe your Ace then?”

“Ace?” Jake didn’t even know what that meant.

Feng gave him a goofy smile, “Yeah, It means you're not sexually attracted to anyone.”

Jake didn’t think that sounded like him, “...Not really, I just don’t think about it. Okay?”

Feng watched him for a second, humming in thought. She waited for him to explain, not letting him budge away from the question.

Jake sucked in a breath, not really wanting to explain, “I have been sexually attracted to someone before, it's just that I have to get to know them first!” He bunched his hands in the sheets underneath him, “I don’t just immediately go, oh hey those are nice boobs, okay?”

“Ah, Hah. Your Demisexual then!” Feng exclaimed, not explaining.

Jake paused again, “Demi- what?”

“It means you only fall in love with someone if you love them!” She looked into his eyes, “It’s pretty cool, right.”

“Uh, I guess.”

“I myself am a bisexual.” She placed a hand over her shirt, glancing at the camera again as she continued on, “I’ll go after both boys and girls, I don’t judge!”

Jake didn’t really care about what she thought, but alright, “C-can we just talk about something else.”

She pouted a little, “I mean, I guess.” 

“Hmm, how old are you, anyways?” She found another question to ask as she adjusted herself on the bed. Scooting back a little more.

“I'm 22, I think.”

“You think!?” She stared at him, eyes wide and mouth skewed, bewildered.

Jake hasn’t really checked in a long time, but it was his rough guess. “I haven’t celebrated my birthday in a while, and I haven’t checked what the year is either…”

“Damn, son.” She swept her gaze towards the camera, “You don’t care about your age do you. You seem like some kind of wise monk in the mountains.”

He just stared at her for a second. Wise? Nah, Jake doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life. He just knows some things are more important than others.

She paused again, “Okay, next could be… Ah, the old classic, what is your favorite color!”

* * *

It went on for a few more hours, Feng would ask a weird question and Jake would answer it. It only stopped when they were interrupted by a kock on the closed door. Feng decided it would be best to wrap it up anyways, apparently it wasn’t fun editing an entire day's worth of film. As she left she let in Bill, who was glancing around the room unimpressed. It was only midday and Jake was already tired.

“Hey Kiddo.” Bill swung his head to look at him, almost nervously.

Jake sat there watching him for a few moments, “Uh, hey…”

Bill sat right next to him on the bed, letting out a deep sign as he did so. They sat in silence for a moment, just staring off into space. It was almost content, Jake thinks he might be able to sit like this with Bill at any moment, It was nice.

“Uh, here, You helped me out so I got to pay up.” Bill handed him a small coupon that said,  _ Give this little shit whatever he wants for half the price Gerald! Or I tell your mom what you've been doing behind her back. P.S. This coupon lasts for life, you little shit.  _ Jake stared at it for a second, just taking it in.

Holy hell. This would help out a bunch! Jake glanced over at Bill and nodded his thanks, amazed. The older man just looked around for a second before getting up, ready to leave.

Right before he exited the door he turned around, “I know it’s not that much, but, eh.” He watched Jake for a moment, there was something in his eyes. Something undeterminable and silent.

“I’ll see you around, kid.” He moved to exit the door with a soft smile on his face, shaking his head, “Thanks for helpin’. It means alot to me.”

“No problem…”

With him gone Jake relaxed into the back of the bed. That was weird, but, it was fun. He glanced at the ceiling feeling his eyelids sink like concert. Maybe he’ll take a small nap before deciding to leave. It was a long journey back after all.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Four!

“Hey! Hey, get your ass up.” Jake was startled awake by a pillow being wacked into his head. He shot up, making his head spin and shift, feeling his chest bones ache and scream against the sudden movement. He bit his lip to hide the groan while he glanced around the room.

From the darkening sky outside the now closed window he’d say it was around 8 or 9. There was a girl towering over his body, a pillow clutched in her grasp while she crossed her hands. One of her eyebrows was arched up as she stared down at him unimpressed. She was tall, everyone was taller than Jake, but she was  _ tall _ . At Least 5’10’’, maybe 5’11’ or 6’. She had long blonde hair that fell around her shoulders.

“What the-” Jake was shushed again by another whack to the head. He spluttered as he pushed away his unruly hair. “What the hell!”

“It’s time to eat.” She waved her hands to a try at the side of the bed. “I was supposed to wait for you to wake up but I got impatient.”

“So you whacked me in the head!?”

“Yep.” She sat next to him in the bed, pulling the tray off the table and roughly shoving it into his lap, “Now, eat.”

Jake sent her a glare before checking what the meal was. It was a bowl of lukewarm chicken noodle soup, she must have been sitting there for a long time for it to have cooled. Next to it was a cup of yogurt, strawberry flavour, and a slightly bruised up banana, but it had a note on it-  _ Hey Fucko visualize this as a dick, maybe it’ll help you figure it out! - Feng, _ which made him lose his appetite.

He pushed it away, setting it back on the end table. Jake’s appetite was as fickle as the weather, you can try and predict it, but it always does what it wants. Even if he hasn’t eaten in probably 2 or 3 days, it doesn't matter. He just wasn’t hungry.

She raised a brow at him. “What the hell do you think you're doing,” she pointed to the meal, “I’m not allowed to leave until you finish it.”

“What? I’m not hungry.” Jake just pushed her fingers away, “Can’t you just tell them that I did?”

She pushed it towards him, making a bit of liquid and noodles fall out of the bowel, “Believe me they’ll check.” She was glaring down at the food, “Just eat, you haven’t for like 2 days. Of course you're hungry!”

Jake narrowed his eyes, “What do you know?” It’s not like it fucking matters. It’s Jake’s body, he knows what he wants and doesn’t want, “It’s my body.”

She let out a large and boisterous sigh, “Like I give a shit! I just want to go home, but you're keeping me here.”

“I’m not doing anything! Just sneak back!” Jake threw his hands in the air, ignoring the way it shook the tray on his lap, making the contents shift and spill.

“You don’t think I’ve tried!” She pinched her face up and shifted, “Meg just drags me back.”

Jake wasn’t going to eat it just because she wanted him too, he could already feel his stomach shifting at the thought, “I’m not eating.”

She turned her seething glare onto him, “Yes you are” She leaped up onto her knees, close to him, “Even if I have to force it down your throat!”

She grabbed the soup, not caring about how it slipped and spilled as she tried to shove it into his mouth, ignoring his cries of protest as she shifted over him. It was falling onto his face, gathering up onto the pillows and sheets behind him making them gross and wet.

He shoved her away, listening to her cuss about how it got onto her shirt, “Fuck off!” Jake spit out the soup that had gotten into his mouth, it was very little compared to the amount around him. It was good too, but at the moment every drop just made him want to puke.

She moved to straddle him, trying to restrain his flailing hands as she poured it onto his face, “No! You fuck off!” She accidentally dumped the rest of the soup onto his face when he tried to smack it out of her hands, ignoring his protests and spluttering.

Jake kicked off the bed, bucking her off and throwing her to the side. He rolled to get off the bed only to freeze at the sight of a grown man crouching outside the window. He was holding a knife, shimmering it in the moonlight. His face was covered by a thick latex mask, it was kinda ugly.

“Wait who’s that!” Jake furiously threw his hands up, what the fuck was going on!?

The girl stopped her cussing, glancing up to the window with narrowed eyes. When she saw who it was outside her eyes grew dark, she rushed to stand up, throwing her hands into the air. “God damn it Michael!” She was yelling at the top of her lungs, “Go home!”

The man outside stared at her. Jake could barely see the man's eyes or face from the shadows that covered them, but he could tell that they were disdainful and unimpressed. He just waited there, not afraid or worried that he had been caught. She flipped him off when he didn’t move away.

“No, I already told you.” The girl moved to step back a little, crossing her arms while she glared down at him. “You can’t just stalk me out all day!”

He stayed still, not even shifting under her glare. Jake couldn’t help but freeze when the man sweepted his eyes over him, gazing into his very being. Man, that fucker was creepy!

“Go. Home.” Her voice deepened, serious.

Finally, with one last glance toward the blonde girl he moved to crawl back down and off the roof.

“Who the fuck was that!?” Jake threw his gaze to the girl, “We’re on the second story aren't we!?” He can’t see the ground so he assumed they were. Maybe he was wrong. Maybe he didn’t just witness someone climb up to their window with a knife in hand.

“Don’t worry. It’s just my psychotic older brother.” She just waved him off, eyes taking their hold on the food again, “He likes jumpscaring people. It’s fucking annoying.”

“Uh…” Jake didn’t know how she wasn’t freaking out. Was this normal!? Holy Fuck!

“Don’t worry, if he comes after you just stab him. It always gets him to leave you alone. For a while at least.” Jake stared at her, eyes wide with horror. Maybe what they say about being psychotic is true, it really is genetic.

She caught his eye, raising her eyebrow she asked, “What?” Jake got the idea that if he tried telling her what he just thought then she might try to murder him. He doesn’t really want to go down that way.

Schooling his face Jake just shifted his gaze to the side, “...Nothing…”

She rolled her eyes. Her eyes softened as she let a frown roll on to her face. She let out a drewery sign. “I’m Laurie by the way.” She glanced over to him, her frown deepening, “I'm not usually this pissy, but Michael keeps trying to scare me.”

“I just want to go home and sleep.” Laurie looked like she wanted to kill over and cry. Her eyes were glazed over, fog like.

Jake paused for a second. He didn’t like seeing people hurt, but he didn’t know what to do. It’s not like he could force his body to eat, he’d just puke it up in the toilet. The toilet… Oh! “Can’t we just flush this…”

Laurie’s eyes grew wide as she swung her head up, “Oh Fuck. Your right!” She pushed herself up quickly, “Come on, you’re gonna help me!”

Jake was pulled up with her as she raced to the door.“What! Why.” Why did he need to go!?

“Because it’s your fucking food!”

* * *

It was satisfying watching the food wash down with the flush. But Laurie was only happy to see it go, quickly rushing him back to his room so that she could leave. Which she did with a quick yell to Claudette to make sure she knew that she made him ’eat’.

At least Laurie was right about the whole checking thing. Claudette came in 5 minutes later to check if he did eat. She glared at him when she saw the mess on the bed. She, very disapprovingly, made him remake it after making sure he got enough to eat. Apparently she made an entire pot of it for him. It made him feel guilty for washing down the food that she worked so hard to make for him. 

He cringed when he explained that he wanted to go home. An angry swirl of anxiety and guilt sweeping into him. It only worsened when Claudette looked at him with disbelief and worry. She, with the help of Feng and Kate, tucked him back into bed and locked the door behind them so that he couldn’t escape.

It’s how he ended up here. In a dark room, standing in front of the bed he just unraveled himself out of. Jake knew his things were in the closet, so he moved to grab them. It wasn’t a long walk from the bed, but it ade his damaged head sin and ache. Maybe it was worse than he thought.

He opened the other door to the closet, it had a mirror on the inside. While it was dark he could still see his face. He didn’t look good at all. His hair was messy and crumpled up, and his face was a shade of white. Don’t even get Jake started on his eyes. They were sunken in, dark bruises lined the edges. They were caused by the concussion, he’s had them before, but not this bad.

Jake moved to pull off his clothes. His pants were easy, but getting his shirt off was harder. Anytime he tried to pull it off his ribs would start to hurt, making him stop and take a break. Not to mention Jake didn’t expect the amount of fatigue he had, he was completely out of breath by the time he got it all off.

He glanced in the mirror again, frowning at the bruises and cuts he could see under all the bandages. Clear purple and green markings that dappled his skin like sunlight through a tree. Jake knew those would take a few weeks to heal.

Instead of inspecting the rest of his body Jake pulled on hir real clothes. It was much easier getting it on than it was getting it off. He enjoyed the way it fitted to his body, Jake really hated wearing oversized clothing. 

He moved to glance around the room, he couldn’t just walk outside and leave through the front door. Someone would hear him and make him go back to sleep, but they did leave him a window. One that he did witnessed someone climb up too…

Jake pushed himself to move to the window. Inspecting it and the area just outside. It was a short and slanted place, just barely enough room for a grown man to fit and balance himself on.

He could make it down the roof and onto the ground. Michael had climbed up and back down with a knife in his hand and a mask on. A mask that probably restricted his sight. Just because Jake’s ribs were cracked and his arms still stung when he used it didn’t mean that he couldn’t do it too. It was practically even, seeing as he had both his hands free, and he could see more.

It was just a few stories, a few feet…

Yeah... Jake can do this…

Jake unlocked and pulled the window up, enjoying the cool breeze that it brought into the room. It had gotten dark outside, real dark. The light from the moon barely helped Jake see what was in front of him, and he couldn’t turn on the light without waking Claudette or one of the others up.

“O-Okay.. Just, Just one foot at a time, Jake, Just one foot at a time…”

Jake moved to lean his right foot out the window, almost slipping on the slanted shingles. How the hell did Michael not slip out here!? Jake slipped his other foot with his right one, making sure to lean against the wall. He could already feel his ribs protesting, but he ignored them in favor of slowly shifting his way towards the end of the roof.

He hesitantly crouched down, feeling his ribs crack and groan under the pressure, wincing he muffled his pains as he looked for a way down. There wasn’t much, just like he thought, they were two stories up. There were a few windows a few feet away that he could slide down too, though.

He crouched down and slowly shuffled his way over there, groaning at the way it pulled his wounds. His head was beginning to spin again, pulsing with each step. Finally he reached it, Jake glanced down over the side to try and find the length between him and the window, and holy shit that was high! Jake felt a nauseating pull bring him to lay his head against the slates.

“Just-Just Breath, you're gonna be okay...” Jake let out a deep breath, inhaling through his nose, trying to calm the bile brewing up at the back of his throat. Jake was just going to have to do it blind, he won’t be able to do it if he looks again.

He shifted his way backwards, shuffling his feet over the side. It took him a while to find the ledge, he almost panicked at the way he just hung there for a second, but got to it before his mind would freak out. Now all he had to do was get down to the next window.

Jake paused, how was he supposed to do that? There wasn’t enough room to crouch down and slip to the next one. Jake would have to drop all the way down to the next one…

Jake took a deep breath and smoothed down his expression. A calm face had a calm mind, that’s what his brother used to say, and even if it doesn’t work on yourself it definitely works to fool other people. He made his fingers let go off the edge while he slid his feet over the side of the window sill.

He felt his heart race into his chest as he grappled with the side of the building, just barely managing to grab the top of the next window. His eyes blinking open to see Claudette baking something. She was washing a few dishes while the oven in front of the window beeped, signaling that it was done.

He only had a few moments to think before she would see him, so without a thought more he dropped. Rushing down the last few feet Jake hit the ground, hard. He bit into his tongue, tasting the metallic tang of blood as he muffled his scream. He could definitely feel the way his ribs crunched together. 

Yeah, he really shouldn’t have done that.

He sat there for a few moments trying to regain the ability to breath without wheezing. That was definitely going to hurt for a while.

Jake caught something shiny glittering in the peripheral view of his vision. He moved his head to the side, gazing upon Michael who was just slowly approaching him, menacingly. Oh, no. That’s bad. Jake willed himself to get up, but his limbs dripped back to the ground like melted lead. Each attempt only accomplished making his chest creak and groan with effort, sending sharp pains into his spine.

It was too late to get up by the time Michael got to him, leaning over he stared intently down at Jake. Jake rested his head against the ground, peering straight up into the face above him. Michael was tall, just like his younger sister. He was also wearing a blue mechanics overall, the name tag said Sinclair, which Jake didn’t think was either his middle or last name.

Jake barely even winced when the knife plunged into the ground beside his face, almost grazing his ear, instead he focused on the other man's eyes. They were brown, one had some discoloration in it, more cloudy and white, but that wasn’t what Jake was so focused on, no, he saw the shimmering lights of amusement and glee in them.

Unlike before, when Michael was watching them from the window, Jake could see all the shades and differences of his eyes. He saw no hate or murderous thoughts, just pure curiosity and enjoyment. They were full of mirth and joy

This little shit was getting off on scaring Jake. Well two can play at that game. If he likes annoying people then Jake will just annoy him back. All he has to do is just ignore his attempts. That's what he used to do with the bullies back in his hometown, it’ll work here too.

Instead of wincing away or trying to call out for help Jake spoke as quietly as he can, “Hey,” He could see the way Michael twisted his head, tilting it, “aren't you supposed to be bugging Laurie?” Maybe he’ll just leave.

He watched as Michael tensed up, glancing to the side before tugging the knife out of the ground. He still kept leaning over Jake, crouching down to get closer to him, apparently more interested in him than his angry sister.

“Not much of a talker are you?”

Jake tilted his head to look at Michael the same way, he just tilted his head the other way. Jake copied it. They did it a few more times before Jake got bored. It was already dark out and he needed to get home anyways. “Well, I need to get home so…”

Michael leaned forward, bare inches away from his face, before lifting him straight off the ground, standing up himself, and flipping him right side up. He was very disoriented, shapes and figures spinning together to create a mess of colors and sounds. Not to mention it made the twang in his chest grow back, and the ever raging headache pulsed back into his skull.

“Ah,” Jake took a moment to recollect himself, brushing off the dirt from his clothes and balancing himself, “Thanks?” He tried to ignore the migraine, but he couldn’t help but squeeze his eyes shut, trying to get the pain to stop.

He got no response from Michael, instead the conversation ended when he deemed himself bored and wandered away, back into the bushes he came from. What was he even doing there, and where was he going? Probably going back to his house to go scare Laurie or something.

_ “Okay.”  _ That was weird, Claudette was right, maybe he should listen to her more. That Michael guy seemed like a total nutcase, but, so did everyone else here was. He can’t be as bad as he seems.

Alright let's get home shall we. Jake gazed about spotting a fence a few feet away, leading to a gate by the house. Jake limped out of Claudette’s backyard and started to make his way to the trail that would bring him back home.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fiveth!

Jake was working on clearing a path for himself after an avalanche. It’s been pretty bad here lately, the weather has been rough. It's been raining cats and dogs for at least 3 days straight, and was still sprinkling on and off today. Yesterday an avalanche came and crashed down the side of the mountain a few miles away from his house. It had cut him off from all the trails he uses to hunt.

He could go hunt closer to town but not only has he already had one person fall into his trap, *Cough* Frank *Cough*, and the noise from town scares away the prey. He’s more successful on this side, so he’s trying to find a way to get over it.

It’s led to him going up higher, onto the trail on top of the mountain. He didn’t like to set traps there because it’s where both the townspeople and the tourists like to hike. He didn’t need another Frank moment. But he could use a knife or a bow to catch something. He hasn’t been very successful, he caught a vole earlier, but nothing else.

It’s probably a mixture of the headaches, chest pain, and the fact that he hasn’t really used a bow since he was like 5. His brother got into it before their father started to crack down on the whole ‘perfect person’ thing. He got pretty good at it too, for a toddler, but it’s been practically 15 years since then. At least he remembers some of the technique’s that his brother taught him.

He made the bow himself, with a bent flexible stick and some fishing string. It’s okay, but it could definitely be improved.

Jake had the vole tied to his waist, eyes scanning for something else to catch. He was in the middle of the trail, he hadn't seen anyone in awhile, and even then it was few and far between. Jake guessed that the avalanche scared everyone away, but Jake couldn’t really take days off, he had to eat after all.

It was a few more minutes before he heard the sudden pound of footsteps and ragged breathing. Jake ignored them, moving to the side of the trail so that he wouldn’t block whoever they were. He could hear one of them calling out words of encouragement. Must be a work out squad.

“Alright everybody- Wait! Is that Jake!?”

Jake jumped, quickly turning his body to the new person. He didn’t expect to be recognized out here. Who the hell was it!? Hopefully not Claudette, Jake still feels guilty for sneaking out.

“Holy Shit, it is!” Jake caught the eye of the speaker, a ginger girl with pigtails. She was leading a squad of 4 other people to run with her. Two guys, one with glasses and another in nothing but red sweatpants, and a girl. The girl was wearing a beanie, her skin and clothing were covered in a layer of grim and spray paints.

“Oh, You're in so much trouble!” The girl with the beanie sassed out, Jake could already feel a swirl of dislike building up in the pit of his being for her.

The one with the red hair spoke next, “Claudette said you ran away,” She pulled herself towards him, glaring, “With a concussion and cracked ribs. Are you crazy!”

“I’m fine.” Jake bit his tongue, this was the worst day to go hunting, why’d he have to be adamant about catching something.

“Sure, and you're also standing just fine aren't you.” She threw her hands into the air, “Like how pigs fly and unicorns are real!” She was really overreacting, Jake was fine. Yes he was a little sore and he could move certain ways without hurting, but he was fine.

“C-Can, hah, we s-stop..” the one with glasses cried out painfully from under his panting. He was slumped over, the one with red pants was trying to help him. They seemed pretty close, the way they leaned on each other.

She glanced over to them with a deep sign.“Yeah, take five everyone,” She pointed at him, “I need to deal with this guy first.”

Jake crossed his arms, ducking his head, “I’m Fine! I didn’t need to stay there!” It was just a little concussion. What was all this drama about!?

Meg raised an eyebrow at him, “Well, If you're fine then can you raise your hands above your head.”

Jake glared at her, knowing what she was trying to do. Jake uncrossed his arms and pulled them up, his wrist level with the top of his head. He could feel the pulse in his chest, a warning for him to stop.

“All the way up!”

Jake gritted his teeth and raised them higher. Oh, that did not feel good! He pulled them back down quickly, sucking in an uneven breath. Meg just raised an unimpressed eyebrow again, shaking her head.

“Okay, how about touching your toes?”

Jake slumped down, glaring at her with everything in his being, but he eventually reached down. He stopped midway down, almost gagging at the way his ribs creaked and groaned. Fuck! Jake swallowed his pain as he slowly pulled himself back up.

“Hmm…” She was watching him, unamused and disappointed.

Jake bit his lip, feeling the rise of a migraine at the back of his head, “I haven’t stretched in a while okay!?”

“I can tell you’re in pain…”

“I’m not!” She stared at him, both eyebrows up, “Okay, Fine, I am. But it’s just the after effects.” Jake didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. He was fine, he’s had worse.

She watched him for a second, observing the way Jake was standing, leaning over a little to take the pressure of his ribs. It practically confirmed that he was hurting. “If it’s just the after effects then you wouldn’t mind running with us, just for a bit.”

Jake stared at her with wide eyes. He hasn’t actually chosen to run since P.E. in highschool. Don’t get him wrong, he's in shape, but he likes climbing and swimming better. Ask him to do any of those things and he’d do them, but running…

She drew a smirk, crossing her arms. “Well, I guess you're just gonna have to go back to Claudette.” He wanted to slap her, wipe that triumph look of her face.

Jake furrowed his eyes, glaring at her, “Fine, I’ll fucken run with you guys…” He wasn’t going to be good at it, but he'll do it. It’ll get them off his back either way.

She widened her eyes, drawing her mouth into a pinched line. She swallowed and then glanced at the others. They were gathered around, sitting and drinking out of water bottles. “You guys ready? We got ourselves a new runner.”

“Noooo…” The one with glasses cried, slumping over into the dirt haphazardly. It made the red pants one laugh, spitting out the water he just took from his water bottle.

“Wait, isn’t he hurt, Meg!?” The beanie girl was wide eyed and glaring at her, “You're always saying we shouldn’t run when we get hurt! That’s why Feng isn’t with us!” Wait Feng was hurt? How? Is she okay!?

“Yeah, Yeah, I know Nea, but Jake here thinks he’s fine. And if he’s fine then he can run with us…” Meg glanced over to him nervously. Must not have thought that he’d actually go with the idea. Well, she can go fuck herself, if she didn’t want him to run then she shouldn’t have offered.

“Well, If he isn’t hurt.” The red legged one called out pulling up the other whining man beside him, “Then it’s fine by me.”

They started to line up again, in the middle of the trail. Meg was in front while the other fell behind her. Nea and the red one were right beside her, already excited for the jog, while the one with glasses leaned over to Jake, watching him carefully.

Jake paused looking at his bow, how was he going to run with that. “Wait, what am I supposed to do with my gear.” He waved at them, not knowing what to do with it, “I can’t just run with it, it’ll get in the way, and I can’t leave it behind.” He’d never find it again, and it took him a long time to make it.

Meg rolled her eyes, moving to take it from him, “Oh you big baby.” She pushed him to spin around, “Here.” Jake felt her unzip the backpack, rummaging around for a second before sliding it in and rezipping it.

She moved back to the front of the group before gazing back and making sure everyone was ready, she nodded before adding, “Okay, just try and keep up with us alright, Jake.” She started to jog ahead, calling out each word between steps, “Just call out if you need to stop.”

It wasn’t that bad at first. Yeah, each step made his chest ache, but what didn’t. It was kind of peaceful running through the forest. Usually Jake just walked, but this was still nice. Well, it was, until Jake started to lose his breath.

It made his head hurt, the lack of oxygen just made his view spin in and out of focus. Not to mention his chest wasn’t having fun trying to expand against his cracked and bruised ribs. Each inhale ripped another shred of pain up his spine, making him gag. He would have felt self conscious if it wasn’t for the guy with the glasses next to him. He was panting out just as bad, each one of his breaths were ragged and sounded painful.

But, Jake kept going with the others, not calling out for a break. They have probably been running for only a few minutes, it would look suspicious if he did. So he just kept on running.

He only noticed Meg glancing back at them because she locked eyes with him, “Almost there gang, just a little more!” Encouraging words leaped out of her mouth, and while it looked like it worked for the other it didn’t with Jake. All he wanted to do was lay down and curl up into a ball.

The pain was starting to get overwhelming, each breath came with the taste of puke. Fuck. He kinda wished the man beside him would get the others to stop, it looked like he needed to puke as well.

Followed by another glance Meg started to speed up, moving from jogging to an actual run, “Alright! Let’s speed it up.” She wasn’t even breathing hard yet, “We need to get an actual work out! Let’s break a sweat.”

Jake just wanted to die, he wished to every inexistant god for the world to just swallow him up. It would be better that way, better than fighting for every breath. He watched as the others sped up to follow her, even the panting man beside him. Fuck!

Jake tried to make his feet speed up, but they kept tripping over each other. Each step vibrated up to his chest, it felt like his chest was on fire. And Jakes head was spinning, vision coming in and out of focus while the edges turned a fuzzy black. The bile was swarming at the back of his throat.

Jake swallowed it down, eyes squeezing shut when Meg called out another encouragement.

Fuck!

“Alright! Take five!” Jake skid to a halt, barely realizing that the others had stopped a few seconds before, panting.

“Ha-hah, y-you look li,like your gonna th-throw u-” The rest of the words were lost to Jake because he was trying to keep himself from inhaling his own throw up while it came out.

“J-Jake!” He slid down, collapsing bare inches away from the pile as he miserably bunched his chest into his knees. He bit his tongue, trying to keep the whine from escaping his throat, while he breathed heavy into his scarf. “Oh, Oh God!”

“See, I told you!” Nea’s voice was sassy and high pitched. It made Jake’s ears ring.

Meg frantically crouched down beside him, “Now's not the time Nea!” 

“Hmm, he threw up more than ya did when we first started, Dwight.” Red pants man called out, mirth in his voice.

Dwight, apparently, called out to Meg still panting, “I-Is he okay!?”

“Jake, Jake, can you hear me!” She rolled her hands against his back, trying to comfort him. It only made him feel sicker, both because of the touch itself and because she seemed to touch a sore spot on his side. He tried to wave her away, gasping and cussing at her, “S-Sorry, forgot!”

Jake groaned, not wanting to deal with this right now. All he wants to do is go back home and curl up to sleep. He’ll throw the vole into the fridge to deal with later, he won’t be able to eat through the pain. He shouldn’t have gone on this goddamn run.

“O-Okay, we need to get you back to Claudette..” Meg balanced herself on the tree next to Jake, “I have a car just down the trail alright. We just got to get you to it.” She motioned for David and Nea to pick him up.

That sounded bad, not good at all. He didn’t want to go back, he couldn't. “ _ Nooo _ ,” Jake let the pittiful wine escape his mouth while he tried to drag himself away from David’s hands.

“Jake!” Meg’s voice was high pitched and harsh.

“Come on, mate, just let us get ya there!” He moved closer to him, trying to grab Jake and pin his struggling form down, “Yer’ clearly hurt.”

Jake pushed his hands away, “I-I’m going home…” He rolled over, ignoring the mid-numbing pain and pushing himself up. He almost gagged again.

“Uh, no your not.” Nea was trying to drag him back by his legs, pulling him off the ground. Jake let out a quick sign of pain, which just made her let go in shock. What did she think would happen when she pulled him that way!?

Dwight tried to calm him down by waving the other away, “That’s not a good idea! You’ll just h-hurt there for a longer amount of t-time.” Hr was trying to reason with him, which, vehicle Jak appreciated him making the other two stop, didn’t really calm him down. He just wanted to go home.

Jake winced as he sat up. He was not going back there, not with the touching and the concern. He was fine goddamn it. He could take care of himself, pain or no pain. If he can do a P.E. test with sprained ankles and a wrist, combined with bruised ribs, in the third grade then he could make it back home. It was fine, he just needed to do it a step at a time.

“I-I am going home!” Jake dragged his bruised form up to to stand. Ignoring the others protesting he tried to drag himself further down the trail. His house was only a few miles away, he could make it. It would be okay.

“God Damn it!” He was pulled to the red man’s chest, pinned down, “Will ya just listen to me, mate.” He grunted when Jake kicked out, trying to get away.

Dwight rested his hand on David’s shoulder, nervously glancing now at him, “David! You're just making him panic even more!” 

Jake couldn’t see his facial expression, but he felt it when David pulled him tighter to his chest, “Sorry, Love, but he ain’t just listenin’.”

“L-Let Go!” Jake hit the hand that was holding him, it didn’t seem to have any effect because David just readjusted him.

“Oh, He’s not happy…” Nea was staring down at him, eyes full of amusement and mirth. Jake really, _ really, _ hates her right now.

Meg pushed herself infront of Jake, eyes pinched softly, “Why don’t you want to go, Jake.”

“Stop!” He winced away from her reaching hands, “Let me go!”

Jake was starting to hyperventilate, each breath not taking a hold in his chest while he struggled against the bigger man. He needs him to let go, he needs to get away. He c-can’t, so this, n-not right now. _ Please _ . Jake let out a ragged sob, fuck. Fuck!

“Hey, Hey…” Meg was softly trying to get his attention, “It’s gonna be okay Jake.”

David jerked him up, trying to get a better hold on him, “Fuck, do I let him go?” 

“He’ll just run, won’t he?” Nea was frowned down at him, eyes still happy. Jake really wanted to punch her, like right now.

“Yeah, but still.” David squeezed him again. Damn that fucking hurts!

“Let Me Go!” Jake reached down and bit into David’s arm, not hard enough to break, just enough to shock the man into letting him go. Jake saw his chance and with an adrenaline burst that weakened the pain in his chest he sprinted down the side of the mountain. He could hear the others following.

“Jake!” Meg was frantically calling out to him.

Nea was panting, “Holy Fuck!”

“How the hell are ye runing so fuckin fast!” David was rushing, very few seconds he’d cuss out trying to avoid a rock or a branch.

Dwight seemed to be doing fine, though, “J-Jake!” Each call he made was lined with worry and concern.

Jake tumbled over the side of a root, crying out from the pain as he skide a few feet into the ground, face planting. This was bad, they're going to hurt him. They're going to touch and hurt him. H-He can't. Jake gasped him a ragged breath as he tried to squirm up, whining from the now present pain in his chest.

“Jake!” Meg laid her hands against his back, “It’s okay, alright…” Jake let out a giant sob,  _ nooo _ . He tried to crawl away, but was stopped when David pressed his hand down into his back, keeping him still.

Meg leaned up to stroke his hair, softly trying to comfort him, “We’re not going to take you to Claudette’s okay…” Jake paused, they weren’t? He let himself sink into the ground, not trying to move, just raggedly breathing. He doesn’t know if he trusts them.

“We aren't?” David seemed confused, gently raising his hand off his back.

“No, He’ll just try to escape again anyways.” Meg gently pulled Jake's hair out of his face, “Might as well enjoy recovering at home. We’ll just have to come visit him every once in a while…”

“Are you sure?” Nea put a lot of impasse on the sure part. 

Meg looked at her, “Yeah, I’ll explain it to Claudette when we get back.”

“Come on, let’s get you home.” She moved to signal to the others for help, “David, Nea can you help me again. I think he finally gave up.”

Jake whinied as he was gathered up into David's arms with the help of Nea and Meg, bridal style too. This was very embarrassing, Jake couldn’t help but hide his face. It wasn’t very nice on his ribs but it definitely took pressure off his head. “Feng was right, ya are perrty tiny fer a grown man.”

Jake just groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually did this once. I cracked my ribs after someone chucked me across the playground at school. (I'm 4'11 okay!) We went to the doctor and everything but forgot to grab a not so I still had to go to PE. They made me run for 4 miles before I puked and had to go him. It wasn't a fun day...


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sixth!

Jake watches as Claudette leaves with a small smile and a wave. He stared down at the lasagna that she brought to him, to help with the last of the healing, apparently. She has finally diagnosed him as fine to go out again. For the past few weeks she has been forcing him on bed rest, she even got the legion involved.

It’s been 6 weeks since he bruised his ribs and cracked his skull open. The ache in his chest has lessened to nothing more than a small sting. He still gets migraines every once in a while but at least the swollen mass at the back of his head had healed and the black bruises around his eyes had gone away.

Claudette said he should take it easy, but in all honesty Jake just wants to go take a walk and actually enjoy the nature that he came her for. He hasn’t been able to leave the house, legion keeps pulling him back or throwing things at him until he goes back home. 

This meant that Jake couldn’t go out and set traps or repair his house. When he vocalized this to Claudette and Feng they started bringing him food to help him. And don’t get him wrong,, it was delicious, but, Jake really just wanted to eat something that isn’t pasta and cake.

So that’s why he’s gearing up and walking out the door. He’s bringing his bow and a rope so he could set some snares. He was going to head down through the bunny trail that Frank got caught on. He hasn’t hunted there in a long time. Very long.

* * *

Jake wandered between the trees, just admiring the way the light dappled through the trees and how the air smelled of moss and wet dirt. It was so beautiful, the kind of way Jake loves. He could hear a crow cackling out in the distance.

Jake walked under another tree, looking up the length to find a bird's nest. It was round and stick-y, but if he looked close enough he could see baby birds. He didn’t know what type but it was so amazing, he’s never gotten to see these kinds of things back home. Jake hummed, stretching his hands over his head. He was so happy that he couldn’t feel the pull in his back anymore.

Jake let out a sigh as he pulled them back to his body. He continued to walk until he heard the sound of singing. Soft and almost heart broken. “I've learned to slam on the brake, before I even turn the key-” He swung around the trees, searching for the sound, but all he could see was grass and ferns, “Before I make the mistake. Before I lead with the worst of me.”

“Give them no reason to stare. No slippin' up if you slip away. So I got nothing to share-” Jake slowly walked in the direction of the sound, coming to find himself in a tiny clearing. “No, I got nothing to say.”

“Step out, step out of the sun, If you keep getting burned,” There sat on a stump was Kate, she had her back turned to Jake, slumped over, “Step out, step out of the sun, because you've learned, because you've learned!”

“On the outside, always looking in, will I ever be more than I've always been?”Jake stood there for a moment not really knowing what to do. Was he supposed to interrupt, or just walk away. It seemed like she was sad, but Jake didn’t really know how to help. “Cause Im tap-tap-tapping on the glass-”

Jake approached the stump, hesitatingly. Every nerve in his body lightened up to tell him to run. He didn’t do good with other people’s emotions. “I'm waving through a window, I-I try to speak, but nobody can hear, so I wait around for an answer to appear!” 

“While I'm watch- watch- watching people pass-” Jake heard her voice break, like she was about to cry, ”I'm waving through a window, oh! Can anybody see, is anybody waving back at me!?”

Jake stepped out to stand beside her, tensed up and ready to run if she didn’t want him to be there, “Hey.”

“Ack!” Kate’s voice broke off from the next verse with a yelp. She whipped around to look at him, eyes shiny with cried tears. She looked a little weak, her face was red and pale, and her form was slumped over.

Jake paused, swallowing hard, “Uhh, sorry…” He scratched the back of his neck, pulling at the curl of his frizzy hair,“You okay?”

Kate glanced down at the ground, wiping her face along the back of her sleeve, “Hmm, yeah, just singing.”

“Oh.” Jake let his gaze wander off to the side, feeling a swirl of nerves in his gut.

Kate's voice came back strong and unbroken, “Hey, aren't you supposed to be in bed, healing?”

Jake’s body jolted, he knew that Claudette had just told him so there was no way that the others knew yet. He’s just glad he didn’t run into Legion yet, they wouldn’t have taken his answer for what it was. “C-Claudette cleared me just down, I’m all good.”

Kate hummed for a second, staring off into space like she was deciding something, “Okay.” Her voice was soft again, like she wanted to just curl up and cry. What was wrong, did something bad happen!?

They remained in silence for a few minutes. It wasn’t comfortable at all, each and every moment passed by only ade Jake tense and his skin crawl. Kate didn’t seem to mind, only ever focusing on the ground or picking at her guitar strings softly. Each pluck makes a dull sound.

And then she perked up a bit, “Here, come sit with me.” She smiled up to him softly, wide and caring as she patted the stump, “We’ll sing together!”

Jake stared down at her, He doesn’t sing, “Uh, I don’t sing…” Jake hasn’t sung since he was maybe 14, when his friend quit choir and left to join another school. They used to practice together, and Jake was terrible at it. He still remembers their little hysterical laughter at the sound of his voice cracking.

“Nonsense, everybody sings!” She had sat up again, hands ready to strum up a song.

Jake glanced between her and the trees around them. He didn’t really want to, it’s been years since he’s tried so he won’t be any good. Not like he was before, anyways. He shifted from side to side nervously, watching the birds gather about them. They always like to follow Jake around, observing and gazing upon him. The crows especially.

“No reason to be embarrassed, nobody is here!” Kate startled him by pulling Jake down to sit by her. It was a tight squeeze, but it worked.

Jake hummed a little, he still wasn't sure. Just because no one else was her didn’t mean he would be embarrassed. Not to mention what if Kate tries to make fun of him for singing badly. She’s amazing at it, even if it sounds like she was about to cry herself. Jake tapped at his thigh softly, not looking at Kate.

Kate sighed, leaning back against him, “Hm, what if I start it?” 

Jake didn’t know, it’s not like he knows that many songs to begin with. Yeah, he knows the beat or some of the parts but he doesn’t really have any songs actually memorized in his brain. “I don’t know that many songs, anyways…”

“Oh, come on now. You have to at least know one!” Kate knocked her elbow into his side. Jake just waved her away, scooting to sit farther away from her, He didn’t like how it felt sitting up against her side.

Jake watched a bird groom one of it’s friends as he thought, ah, yeah that one, “Little Bird, I-I know that one…”

His mother used to sing it to him when she did the laundry. It was the best part of the morning. He would always sit on top of the dryer watching her fold and organize the clothes. She would always smile up to him sweetly and laugh at the way he would screech the lyrics at the top of his lungs. She even did the questions, humming them softly under her breath for him to answer.

It stopped when he was around 8 or 9, when his dad hired a maid. She wouldn’t let him follow her around like his mom did, only ever shooed him away so she could work in peace. Jake always hated her and her cleaning. She never did it the way mom used too.

It also didn’t help that his parents started to fight during the same time, his mom grew distant and cold. She was still there for him but she never sought him out anymore. Her skin grew pale and thin, and her eyes never gleaned the same way they used to do. She doesn’t even smile anymore, all she could do was grimace a strange quirk of the lips.

Kate made a quick agreeable noise, “I think I know that one.” She strummed a few cords, checking to see if they were correct.

“Ahh, let’s see-” She hummed a little while she played the ever familiar tune that Jake remembers from childhood, “The one that goes- Little bird, Little bird, Fly through my window…”

“Yeah, that one.” Jake swallowed roughly, feeling his heart clench in his chest at the words. His eyes burned, tears gathering at the corners. Fuck, why’d he have to choise that one. 

Kate didn’t seem to have noticed, instead she restarted, “I’ll start,” Jake saw her turn towards him out of the corner of his eyes, “You just join in when you want to.”

She strummed for a few seconds before actually starting the words, “Little bird, little bird, fly through my window-” Jake paused every word bringing him a new emotion, “Little bird, little bird, fly through my window.”

Jake swallowed a lump in his throat, “Little bird, little bird, fly through my window and find molasses candy.”

“Through my window, my sugar lump. Fly through my window, my sugar lump, and find molasses candy.”

She smiles up to him, “Who knows a bird?” Jake stared into her eyes,feeling the tears welled up softly. She tossed him a worried look but only carried on.

Kate taps at Jake with her elbow, gently pushing it into his side to get him to answer, “...A chickadee…”Jake croached out an answer, memories flooding his mind while he tried to hold back the tears. Why was he even crying!? It happened years ago!

She plucked a few of the strings, “What's a chickadee say?”

“Chchchchchch,” The sound vibrated out of his throat automatically. It felt so normal, like his throat had remembered what it needed to do before his brain did. It had come out broken and soft, though. Not at all like he did it when he was younger.

Kate smiles at him again, starting the next verse like his mother used too. “Chickadee, chickadee,” She started to sway, looking up to stare at the birds through dappled light. “Fly through my window, chickadee, chickadee, fly through my window.”

Jake blinked the tears away and instead started to mumble along. At least Kate was having fun with the song, he might as well join in, “Chickadee, chickadee, fly through my window, and find molasses candy.”

His voice was cracked and pitched differently than hers. There was definitely a difference to the two in terms of skill, “Through my window, my sugar lump, fly through my window, my sugar lump, and find molasses candy.”

They stopped for a second, Jake smiled, mouthing her words, “Who knows another bird?”

Jake felt the smile quirk onto his face sadly, and with fake enthusiasm he continued with, “Me! A Jaybird.”

“And what does a jaybird say?” She laughed, turning to face him.

“Jay-jay jay jay jay jay…” Jake chuckled when she grinned at him.

“Jaybird, jaybird, fly through my window. Jaybird, jaybird, fly through my window.” He picked up his sound, making it boom louder. He feels some of the birds unsettle and calls out their songs with him.

“Jaybird, jaybird, fly through my window and find molasses candy!” Jake huffed out a breath, not used to having to sing like this.

“Through my window, my sugar lump. Fly through my window, my sugar lump. Find molasses candy!”

Kate glanced at the trees before asking, “Who knows one more bird?”

“I do!” Jake yells, watching the birds screech in return, “ A whip-poor-will!”

“And what does a whip-poor-will say?”

Jake answers with a loud whistle. It was probably the best thing he could do in the song, he remembers practicing every night to show it off to his mother in the morning. She loved hearing him practice. He heard a bird answer back with one of its own, cackling off in the distance. He heard Kate laugh in the background.

Kate cheerfully continues, “Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, fly through my window. Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, fly through my window.”

Jake tries to make his voice harmonize with hers, it didn’t work too well, but it was better, “Whip-poor-will, whip-poor-will, fly through my window and find molasses candy.”

One more time and that’ll be it. In all honesty Jake was going to miss it, “Through my window, my sugar lump. Fly through my window, my sugar lump and find molasses candy!”

“That was great, Jake!” Kate finished the song with a clap, eyes shining as she grinned over at Jake.

“Uh, no,” He raised an eyebrow at her, smirking, “My voice was shit.”

“That doesn’t matter,” She just shook her head at him, “We had fun, didn’t we!”

“I guess..” Jake smiled off to the side, watching a bird fly close to stand a little aways. Probably wondering what all the commotion was. 

“The more you practice the better you’ll get.” She threw her hands through the air, happily waving them around. “The next time we’ll sing together, you’ll have a better voice!”

Kate stood up, tilting a bit to see Jake. She had grabbed her guitar off her lap to throw it over her shoulder and settle at her back. She stepped away from the stump to move back onto the trail that Jake was walking on.

“Wait, Next time!” Jake stared at her back, eyes wide, shoulders tense.

“Yes, Jake, next time,” she winks at him, “There will be, and you’ll have to help me sing it out!”

She Leaped over the tiny ledge to the trail and turned to stare at him with a small smile for a second before turning tail and walking away.

“Wait! Where are you going?” 

“Home, Jake!” she continued on walking, she only turned back around to say, “Thanks. I needed this.”

Jake sat there, bewildered. What the hell just happened. One minute they were singing, and the next she’s leaving. He thought that they were going to sing a little bit more before she leaves. And what the hell was with the whole next time part, Jake definitely wasn’t going to practice in his free time.

* * *

He did.

He practiced while setting traps and firing his bow. He sang while he made his meals and got ready for bed. He even sang to the birds outside when he was wandering around, watching them chirp and cackle at him in return. In all honesty, Jake loved it. He loved the way it made his throat vibrate and how it made the air escape his lungs. He just loved it.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Seventh!

Jake swung the bag of soap around his shoulder, heading down the trail of the deep river a few miles behind his house. It was wide and long, with enough underbush to hide away his things. It was a perfect place to take a bath.

Jake didn’t have any place to shower so he had to do this every once in a while. He never really kept track of it, only ever taking one if his hair got to the point where it could stand straight up with grease or when he gets covered in thick layers of mud. Which was about twice a week out here in the open wilderness. Jake didn’t mind doing it this way, he just thought of it as a means to an end.

He sat down at the edge of the riverbed, shuffling his shoes off. He would usually keep them on, to avoid sharp rocks or pebbles, but he knew that there weren't any in this section of the river. He had bathed her many times in the past few months, and he already removed any of the large or sharp rocks from the bottom. 

He even made sure to buy some soap from the grocery store in town too. It was only a bar for body wash, but it would do for his hair too. It was definitely a step up from not having anything at all.

His mom used to make him use cream rinse when he was younger, it always made his hair staticy and wild. He already had a hard time getting his hair into a ponytail or buns beforehand, but it made it even worse. He couldn’t get it to do anything, not even with hair gel. So now he only uses shampoo, it works out because his hair is already soft enough without it. Or well it’s not scratchy or course is what he meant. He doesn't really care if it’s silky smooth or not. As long as it’s clean it’s fine with him.

Jake pulled off his many shirts and pants, leaving him in his scarf and boxers to pull out the towel and soap from his bag. He didn’t bring any extra clothes, he would just wear what he brought on his back. It’s not like they're dirtier than the water in the creek and they didn’t have any extra mud that his other clothes didn’t have already so there wasn’t a point in bringing extra. He set them out on the side so that he could get to them without any problems.

Jake slid the last pieces of his clothing off, setting them to rest in the bag with the others. He slowly dipped his legs into the cold water. Jake always hated this part, the whole ‘getting used to it’ part. Jake bit out a curse when it reached his unprotected stomach. Letting out a deep sigh Jake dunked the rest of his body under the water, holding for a second to get used to it.

When he emerged with a panting breath his eyes were drawn to a bird bathing in the shallow end by his backpack. It dipped its head into the water and ruffled its feathers to get it under the oil and dirt caked onto it’s back. He couldn’t help but smile, birds were always cute.

Jake swam a few laps around the river, he liked to swim and this was an opportunity he wasn’t going to miss out on. He dived underwater and back up again, running his hands through his grease soaked hair, making sure it was wet.

He was on his way when he heard a sudden, “Ohhh~ Skinny dipping are we!”

Jake jumped, eyes singing to where the legion were standing on top of the trail leading to the river bed. Frank was led up against the tree, head tilted trying to see past the water's edge. Julie and Joey were chuckling about something and pointing to all his gear on the side lines. And finally Suzie was blushing, her hands covered her eyes as she opened her fingers every once in a while.

Jake huffed, of course it was those four, “I’m not.” He scrunched himself down, covering all his bits with his body. They should really not be there. He could get in alot of trouble for this!

Frank grinned at him, sliding down the path with a grin on his face, not even caring about all the dirt and shit he’d just dislodged into the water. “Well, it sure looks like it!”

“I'm taking a bath!” Jake scowled at them, “Leave, I’m naked!” Why were they coming down here! They needed to leave, he is a grown man, naked, and they are children!

“Ohhh~” Frank crouched down at the edge, picking at his own clothing. Oh god, was he really about to do what Jake thought he was going to. Oh no.

Frank turned to the others, already pulling off his shirt, “Everyone needs a bath, don’t we guys?” He went on to help Joey pull off his sweatshirt.

“Oh, hell yeah!” Julie yelled while she stripped, Jake had to turn away, embarrassed, barey seeing Joey doing the same thing. Jake is really wanting to die right now, just disappear into a hole. 

“Sure do!” He heard Joey talking from behind him, ignoring the way the waves lapped up against his back while the others jumped in. They all gasped, Frank even screamed, when they realized how cold the water was.

“Emm…” Jake could see Susie out of the corner of his eye, still clothed. She was staring at the ground, an obvious flush in her skin while she tugged on the bottom of her hoodie. At Least  _ someone _ had some modesty. 

“Uh, no, you guys should not be doing this.” Jake leaped away from Frank who was trying to pry tackle him through the water. It wasn’t working out too well for him, he kept slipping on the slimy rocks below, “I'm like 22, or something, I’ll get the cops called on me!” Jake really didn’t want to go to jail for this. He is  _ not _ a pedo, in fact he is insisting on them leaving.

Julie just scoffed at him, “Ah, were all vaguely old, they won’t care.” She shook her head, eyes focusing back on Susie. She must be trying to convince her to come in.

“That doesn’t mean I want you here!” Jake swam away from Frank, waving Joey away when he began too. “I really don’t want to see any of you naked!”

Joey shrugged, answering with a smile, “Oh come on, Jake, It’ll be fine.”

“Haha, Look he’s blushing!” Jake glared over at Julie, but had to look away quickly when he realized that she had gotten out of the water to help Susie with her clothes. Fuck, he really needed to just leave. If they weren't going to leave then he had too.

Jake contemplated it for a few more seconds before realizing that that wouldn’t work either. Not only were Susie and Julie up there undressed but that would mean that the others would see him naked as well. “Oh my god.” Jake scowled into the water, this day was not going to end soon enough.

“We need to bath too!” Frank cried to Jake while he swam up to Susie to help too.

“Do that at your fucking house then!” Really, Jake didn’t see why they had to do this here.

Julie dropped something to the ground, Jake didn’t look to see, and answered back with, “But it’s better here.” 

“Come on Susie, it’s only cold at first.” Joey had joined in to help convince her as well, ignoring the fuming Jake as he swam away from him.

“But…” Jake listened to Susie's small and hesitant voice. Jake really hoped that she wouldn’t get in, he  _ really _ did.

“No reason to be embarrassed!” Julie’s shrill voice exclaimed, “Everyone else is naked too!”

Jake shuffled in the water, trying to get to a comfortable spot again. If he just quickly washed up and then somehow convinced the others to leave everything would go back to normal. He could forget that this happened and that four teenagers didn’t just sneak up on him during bathtime.

“I.. I don’t know…” Jake heard a soft scuffling movement as Susie moved about.

“Once you get in no one can tell you're naked anyways! It’s fine, come on Susie.” Frank climbed back into the water with Julie. Jake let out a long sigh, feeling the water move about him again.

“I really don’t like this.” Jake cringed back when Julie cme over and patted him on the head, ignoring his protests.

“Oh, shush.” 

“Come on!” Frank was yelling gain, cheering while Susie whined about the cold water. “Just a little more Susie.”

Joey threw his hands into the air, throwing a splash of water towards Julia and Jake, “Ada girl!” 

“Ugh.” Jake ignored their laughs and calls while he turned himself away from them, instead of strangling or stabbing them he leapt over a few rocks to grab the bar of soap quickly. He might as well do what he was here for.

Jake gritted his teeth when Frank and Joey started to wrestle in the shallow end, sending huge waves of water towards the others. Susie was still shivering, covering herself up beside Julie. Jake was glad that someone, other than him, was nervous about this. He turned away from them, making sure his hair was wet before adding some soap to it.

He hasn’t bathed with anyone since he was around 5 or 6. It just isn't something you did after you got old enough to know not to eat the bath soap and drown yourself. He isn’t entirely sure how they’re not super embarrassed about being naked with each other. But they probably do this all the time when Jake isn’t around.

Jake dunked his head under the water, rinsing the suds out. He ignored the way Frank tried to get him into a splash fight with a sigh. “I’m here to bathe, not play.” Jake rolled his eyes when Frank and Julie pouted.

“Oh, come on Jake,” Julie crossed her arms, scowling at him with a pout, “It’s nice to have fun sometimes.” 

“Yeah, well, my definition of fun is not hanging out with naked 16 year olds.” He ran his hand through his hair again, checking to see if there was any soap left. When there wasn’t any he pushed it back to irritatedly stare the air a few inches above their heads. Avoiding their naked bodies.

“Hey!” Julie responded with a yell, eyebrows squinted at him, “Susie’s the only one whos 16.”

“Does that even matter!” 

“Yeah!” Frank tossed another wave at him, which Jake ignored in favor of scrubbing his chest with the tough block of soap.

Julie scoffed, avoiding a few splashes from Frank, “It means that you can lighten up and play a little.”

“I’m taking a bath!” Jake turned around, going to put the soap down so that he could focus on a way to get out of there, “I don’t want to play.”

“Ugh,” Frank swayed his way over to Jake, his hurried movements making an awful lot of noise and waves, “Fine if you want to just take a bath then let's take a bath, then!” Frank grabbed the soap out of his hands very dramatically. Jake just rolled his eyes watching him dunk it into the water to try and soften it up.

Frank tried to work it into his hands for a few seconds before giving up and tossing it to Julie. She caught it, examining the soap immaculately. She even brought it up to his face to smell, scowling over to Jake when she realized it didn’t even have a scent.

“Eww, What is this.” She broke a piece of for herself before handing it over to Joey. He looked very hesitant, eyes burrowing into the white block before trying it for himself. They are really over reacting. Yeah it wasn’t the best, but it still cleaned his hair and skin. Jake didn’t like fancy things, so it was perfect.

“It’s soap.” Jake rolled his eyes at them, really they were over reacting. It’s just soap. “Don’t use it if you don’t like it.”

“This is not soap. This is a brick of clay that was dyed white,” Julie scrunched her nose at the piece in her hands, moving to hand some to Susie.

“It’s not even giving us suds!” Joey widened his eyes while he rubbed it across his palms, “How the hell are you using this!”

“I-it’s not too bad…” Susie Had her eyes narrowed softly at the soap in her hands, mouth scrunched up painfully, telling him what she really thought of it.

Jake rolled his eyes again. They didn’t have to use it if they didn’t want to, no use about complaining about it to Jake. It’s not like he can make it better, he can’t just magically poof it out of existence and bring forth an actual shampoo bottle.

“Next time we go to the store we’re getting something better.” Frank crushed the rest in his hand, letting the leftover slip into the water and fall beneath the surface.

“Ugh, excuse me, ‘we’.” Jake even did the little finger thingies, ‘we’ was not a thing here. He was not planning on taking any of these little shits to the store. Not only will they want to buy everything, but he’s pretty sure that they’ll get into  _ so _ much trouble.

“Yes, we.” Frank dramatically threw his hands into the air, turning to look at him again, “You’ve practically adopted us anyway, don’t get all high and mighty now.” 

“I’m not! And I am not your guys fucking dad.” He snarled back. He was definitely not going to be their dad. He could not handle that, he was definitely not going to deal with that.

“Of course not.” Julie scoffed again, leaning up against Susie, “You're more like an older, more frustrated, brother.”

Joey agrees with a soft hum, nodding slightly while he wiped his hands clean of the residual soap. He didn’t even react when Frank sent another wave towards him.

“I reject that statement.” Jake shook his head, cleaning the last of the soap off.

Julie suddenly perked up, eyes widening with a devious smile, “You know you love us, big bro!” Julie motionied for the others to join in on the teasing.

“Yeah, broski!” Frank and Joey called out at the same time, apparently having enough practice to do it,“We love you bromobile.”

“Y-yeah bubba!” Even Susie was joining in, nervous little giggles bracketing her words.

“I hate you guys so much.” Jake said, there wasn’t that much heat to it. He couldn’t really be angry at them. He remembers annoying his brother with nicknames like that. Loving the way he used to fume and blush at them, he always got so mad that he would try and tape his mouth shut. It was all fun in games.

Jake couldn’t wipe the smile off his face when he heard the others laugh and giggle in the background. He watched as they swam around splash and dunking each other in the frigid water. It was nice, serene, watching them play through the dappled and morning light.

“Man you really need to eat more.” Joey had popped up at his side, making Jake jump.

Jake hummed, not knowing what he was talking about until he looked down. He didn’t realize how skinny he had gotten. He could actually see his ribs poking out of his sides. “Oh.” Jake didn’t mean to get this skinny, he really needed to eat more, didn’t he.

“Oh!” Joey raised an eyebrow at him, “Oh, what. You look like you haven’t eaten in days!” 

Jake scratched at the back of his head, “Yeah.” He rubbed at his chest a little, “It happens from time to time.”

“How. How does- does that even happen!” Joey threw his hands in the air, drawing the other members' attention, “You don’t just not eat!”

Julie swam closer with the other two, leaning up against Joey while she examined his chest, “Yeah you are really skinny, man.” 

“Uh, I just forget sometimes.”

“Forget what!” Frank eyes widened, crossing his arms while he slumped forward towards Jake.

“Food.” Jake watched as they glanced towards each other in confusion. He probably needed to clarify that statement before they overthink something, “I forget that I have food sometimes.”

It was followed by an overwhelming silence. They just stared at Jake with varying expressions. Joey and Susie looked mournful, eyes shallow and cut, but Frank and Julie look like they were shocked and bewildered. It lasted for a few minutes, each new one making Jake slump down more and tense up.

“Oh.” Susie finally broke the tension with a tiny voice.

Jake let out a sigh, “Yeah.”

Julie awkwardly punched Frank in the side, “Well, we’ll just have to remind you sometimes right.” She looked at the others expectantly, a smile on her face that slowly turned devious. The others responded with varying agreeable sounds and exclamations.

Jake let out a deep sigh. He was really going to have a trouble on his hands in the next few weeks.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eighth and the Last!

Jake shook his head, wincing at the way Frank pulled the bow close to his own face as he tried to aim at the target on the tree. He was definitely going to get hit in the face by the rebound, but he also wouldn’t listen to Jake if he tried to explain that to him so he just let it happen.

Ignoring Frank's yelp he watched as Joey and Julie stepped up to try and hit the target next while they themselves snicker at Frank’s mistake. They both leaned back, spine straight and shot the arrow with good precision. Joey hit the blue around the red dot in the middle while Julie’s hit the tree behind it. They did pretty well, although Julie keeps letting go too early. 

They’ve all improved significantly since the first time Jake let them practise with his own bow, but Susie was the best at it. She’s been getting bulls-eye after bulls-eye. She’s even better than Jake himself, which doesn’t say much because Jake’s pretty bad at it himself.

It was fun trying to teach them to shoot arrows, although Tapp thinks it’s definitely a bad idea, but… eh. If they try to shoot someone then it’s not his fault, and the victim would probably deserve it. He’s teaching them good skills, ones that will help them once they get kicked out of their homes when they turn 18. Jake’s just hoping they don’t try to practise on each other, that would be hard to explain to their parents.

He glanced off to the side, the sun had already slipped below the horizon, leaving a dark glow across the ground. Jake thought it was pretty, even if he’d have to stop their practise before it gets too dark and they accidentally shoot each other... or themselves. The trees were back lit with hard lines of orange and gold, making them stand out against the dark sky. The stars would be coming out pretty soon.

Jake startled when he heard his phone ringing. Even the others glanced at him with concern. His phone never rings, yeah his mom calls once a week, but that was usually on sunday around 12 in the morning. It’s only wednesday and he should definitely not be getting a call this late in the afternoon.

He guessed it could have been someone from the town, but he hasn’t given anyone his phone number. Not even Claudette and Kate. They never asked so he didn’t even think about it. Jake thinks it’s because they don’t think he even has a phone.

Either way Jake leaped up, stretching quickly before dashing inside to pick up his landline. It was next to his fridge, right above his overfilled trash can. It was old and worn, but it definitely worked for him. He never really plans on getting a new aged phone, even if everyone keeps expecting him too. This one worked just fine.

He picked up the phone, holding it to his ear as he answered with a, “Hello, this is the residence of the parks, your speaking to Jake Park.” It had been trained into him by his father and older brother, it was apparently a good skill to have for future businesses, even for a two year old.

It was silent for a second until he heard a very familiar and tired voice over the line, one that made a very clear and hard ball roll around his chest, like marbles being skidded on a dirty sidewalk. “H-Hey baby bro…”

Jake didn’t know why but he just freezes, hands clenching around the phone and into his jacket. The voice over the end of the line turns his bones to stone, locking them in place while Jake desperately listens to that quiet voice on the other end of the line, one that he hasn’t heard in over five years. Not even being able to answer back when it stops.

“Hello?” Jake’s older brother swallows, voice quiet and full of tiredness. Like he had been up for the past few days doing something hard and strenuous. “Jake, are you there?”

Jake swallowed the spiky lump in his throat, blinking away his sudden tears he answered back with a soft, “Uh- Y-Yeah, I’m here.” 

He hears another voice in the background, high pitched and squeaky, too quiet to understand what they're saying, but he’s pretty sure it’s one of his niecies. His brother answers their question before responding back to him, “Cool.” There was an awkward silence before he added on a tired, “sorry for calling so late...”

Is he okay, he sounds really tired. Jake bites his lip, hoping that his brother wasn’t in any trouble. Maybe he should ask? But what if that makes him stop coming to him for help, does his brother want help?

“Jason…” Jake paused, not really knowing how to go forward with this, “Jason, is everything okay?” he couldn’t help but let at least a little bit of his worry settle into his question, making it wobble and shake with effort.

“Yes!” Jason exclaims, quickly followed up with a quieter, “Ye-Yeah, why would you say that?” 

Jake could hear another squeak in the background, followed by a tiny crash and some scraping sounds. His brother cursed and then came back to him, waiting for an answer. 

“I-I don’t know, you just never really call me unless it’s important.”

It was true, he stopped calling when he moved away. Not even on his birthday or during christmas, and Jake didn’t even have his number to call instead. Not that his father would have let him, mind you, but it still would have made Jake feel better knowing that he could contact him if he wanted too.

“Well…” Jason paused, contemplating his next words carefully, “I never said it wasn’t.”

Jake stood there waiting for a second, waiting for Jason to continue on with his problem, not realizing that his older brother was doing the same thing. Jake listened in to his own background, making sure the others weren’t trying to listen in. He tuned back in when he heard the quiet thuds of the arrows hitting their marks outside.

Realizing that his brother wasn’t going to give back a response Jason continued on with a quiet response, “Jake, uh, I just had another baby. A boy this time.” He could hear the smile in his voice, happy and content. If not just a little bit of tiredness mixed in. “Isn’t it wonderful.”

Jake felt a spike of something hit his chest. Taking his breath and causing him not to respond. A baby, well another baby, one that his brother didn’t even come to tell him about. Yeah, maybe actually coming down to see him would have been hard, with his girls and all, but he could have at least called. His brother should have at least told him he was getting a new nephew.

“Jake?” Jason’s worried voice came in over the line, anxious and panicked.

Jake swallowed before responding, “A baby?” 

Maybe he heard wrong? It was an old line after all and the actual words coming out of the phone were staticy and slightly disjointed, It could have been a mistake on his part. It could have been something about the army or brandy or something else that’s similar to a baby. Jake shouldn’t assume it was automatically a baby.

“Y- Yes.” 

“Oh,” Jake shuffled his feet against his floor, damn, “When did that happen?”

“Just about three months ago.” Jason sounded even more tired, his voice strained and choppy, “I’ve been meaning to call but with everything going on, but it’s been pretty hectic.”

He bets, a new baby is a handful. He’s never really handled one but he can imagine with having to get up and take care of it every night. Jake definitely wouldn’t be able to handle that, and that’s why he’s never going to become a parent. He’d probably drop kick the thing if he did.

“Oh.” Jake could feel a kind of pull in his chest, something old and broken, something that never quite healed all that long ago.

“Anyways, I wanted to invite you to a ‘party’ at my house.” Jake could hear the quotation marks in his brother's words, “Everyone’s coming, and since you're my only baby brother I wanted to invite you.”

Jake took in a deep breath, closing his eyes against the sudden sting in his eyes. Desperately trying to keep the squeaking out of his voice as he responded, he wasn’t a damn teenager anymore, “Okay.”

“Yeah, all my friends are going to be there, so if you want to bring a few of your own then you can too. I don’t know if you’d want to hang out with mine, some of them are like twice your age…”

There was another crack in the background and a sudden giggle. He could hear Jason sigh deeply, before yelling something that Jake couldn’t quite make out. Probably telling off his niece or something.

“Y-Yeah, sure.” Jake didn’t really know why he agreed, he just did. Maybe it’s because he wanted to see his new nephew, or maybe his older brother. Either way he was definitely going to feel misplaced when he gets there,

“Okay…” Jason sounded strained, still distracted by what’s going down in the background.  “Mhhm.”

He pressed himself against the wall, listening to his brother ramble on about something before clueing in on the actual import stuff, “I’ll see you next weekend at like 3, okay?”

“Yeah. yeah, I’ll see you then.” How the hell was Jake even going to get there!?

“Cool…”

There was another sudden and loud silence over the phone. Each brother waiting for the other to add something, not wanting to interrupt in case they do.

Jason was the one to break it, voice rushed as he quickly did something in the background. Jake could hear the rustling sounds and clanking. “Listen, I’ll talk to you then, alright?” Jake blinked, that’s one way to end the conversation. “I got to go check up on the kids now, so I’ll see you in a bit.”

He hangs up without giving Jake the time to answer. Instead Jake just pulled it off his ear to look at it disgruntledly before shoving it back onto the receiver and marching out to his door. He took a deep breath before opening it.

“Oh,” Jake sighed out. They were all gone. The legion had left all their bows and arrows behind, scattered about haphazardly, probably to go bother some store owners or something. Well that makes things easy. At Least he doesn’t have to fake his mood at that very moment.

* * *

Jake wakes up in a bad mood, not… not grumpy or annoyed, but just there. It’s hard to describe, like he was just existing. Not really angry or happy, neither sad nor curious. Just there.

He stayed in bed until midday, not very motivated to move. His curtains were drawn keeping the blinding light out which meant the only thing telling him it was actually day was the sound of the birds outside. They were pretty. Their calls and songs drew him out of his mind and made everything okay.

Jake only rolled out of bed because he realized that he should probably catch something to eat. Not that he was very hungry, there was a growing knot in his chest, gnawing and old, but because the Legion or Feng would probably drop by later for food. He couldn’t just accidentally starve his new, adopted, siblings.

The legion drops by practically every night after learning that he’ll start feeding them if they come by. He’s kind of glad that they did, there starting to fill out more. He didn’t even realize how skinny they all were when he first met them. He’s learned, from over listening, that their parents don’t really care too much about them. It explains why Jake only ever really sees them in those hoodies. Or why Jake has to deal with Tapp coming by yelling about how they’ve vandalised another store.

Why he comes to Jake instead of his parents is something he’ll probably never know about. It’s probably because if they go to their parents then they will be in trouble. Not the kind of trouble Jake or Tapp wants anyways. Either way Jake has somehow become the main person to go to if they get in trouble, and it’s somehow become his responsibility to punish them too.

He mostly just threatens to burn down their hideout or set a bunch of traps around the tree house. They didn’t listen at first, _ but now they do _ . He still chuckles at the memory of their startled screams. 

Feng started to show up a few weeks ago, deciding that a new playlist on her channel was going to be ‘hanging out with the old man in the woods,’ where she learns how to hunt or fish. Apparently all her viewers like him and were interested in what he was doing. Even if that was just him and Feng sitting on his porch feeding the crows around his house.

He’s decided that he’ll fish today. Not only was it low maintenance, but he could also do something else while waiting for the fishes to bite. Like draw or write in his journal, or something. Either way it’ll be nice to just relax or chill out for awhile. He’s been pretty busy with all his new friends and acquaintances dropping by.

He just wanted to relax and enjoy the sun for awhile.

* * *

Everything seemed so serene, like the world around him was frozen in time and moving very slowly. The light danced off the ripples in the water into the darks of his eyes, lighting up the dust and fluff in the wind. He glanced back down at his book leaning up against a tree a few feet away from the edge of the lake.

He loved the sound of the water lapping against the side of the bank, sloshing and rippling smoothly. It reminds him of the beaches his brother used to take him to when he was younger. How the waves would wash in, bringing all kinds of cool little things. Like shells and sea glass, or those tiny crabs that him and his brother used to catch and play.

Jake couldn’t help the small smile that quirked onto his lips. He remembered how his brother would always try to pick them up with his hands, how he would yelp and whine when they would snach up onto his hands and pinch his feet. It was so funny hearing him scream and run about trying to get it off.

Jake’s smile fell off, eyes darkening.

Letting out a sigh he noticed the fishing pole shake and spin, signaling that he’d just caught a fish. He set his book to the side, making sure to mark his place, and set off to real in the fish. It bucked against the line, pulling hard and fast, but Jake got it eventually. Making sure to toss it in a bucket so that he could safely bait and set his pole out again. He’d already caught a few others so it wouldn’t be too bad if he left after the next one. It’s not like Jake, himself, was going to eat too night. He knew it wasn’t very healthy, but he just didn’t feel up to it at the moment.

Settling back against the tree Jake thought back to the phone call the previous night. How the hell did his brother already have 3 kids. How did he not know that his wife had gotten pregnant again, and why was he learning this right now. His brother had told him every other time.

Jake’s eyes drifted to the dirt around him, eyes scanning the grass patches, watching bugs and ants drifting about. So tiny and unworryingly. Jake kind of wished he was a bug right now, drifting aimlessly in the wind, only worried about what he was going to for his next meal. He didn’t want to deal with his family.

Should he even go next weekend, would his brother even care? He hasn’t seen him since he turned 16. His brother had just up and left to start his new job. He knew he had had a few kids when he started his 3rd year in highschool, but three, _ three _ kids. The oldest hat to be at least 6 by now. His brother had two girls and a boy. Jake has two nieces and a nephew.

It was hard to imagine. Jake still felt so young himself. How the hell did he already have nieces and nephews. He knew his brother was 12 years older than him, so maybe that’s why. It has been since, his brother was 34, and he already had a wife by the time he was 26. Jake had met her when he turned 11, on his birthday, her name was Angelina, but every one called her Angie.

She had black hair and soft brown eyes, and she was always wearing a golden cross necklace over her flowing shirts and jeans. It had been her grandmothers, something that was passed on from generation to generation. Jake thought she was pretty and nice, smart too. She helped him with his homework when she came over for dates. 

Their mom had approved, saying that she reminded her of their grandmother when she was younger, but their dad... their dad didn’t feel the same way. He thought that they should marry for power. That he should go out and date one of the rival business women or something to get power over them. 

It’s what drove the final nail in the coffin for his brother. He left when Jake turned 13, taking off to start his own business, to start his new life without his old family. Without Jake. it made everything worse, made the punishment worse. His brother had left and had barely showed up to anything that dealt with him.

His brother didn’t want anything to do with him anymore...

Jake let out a sigh, eyes shutting against the setting sun. God, how would he even get there. It was a 6 hour drive away from his new house. A lot better than the drive to his parents, which was around 13 hours away, but still bad. He’d have to pay the taxi _ so _ much. Maybe Claudette or Dwight would let him borrow his car or something...

Jake jumped hearing a giant crash. He turned to see the fishing pole being pulled into the water. He rushed up, barely even noticing how the water splashed up his thighs and onto his shirt while he tried to grab the pole out of the water. When he finally got it he pulled, tugging hard while he stepped back. Holy hell this fish was fast.

Jake grunted when he finally pulled up the bass. It was huge, maybe a foot and a half long, and it had probably weighed 16 pounds. He dropped it into the bucket after struggling to get it off the hook. Holy hell, him and the others were definitely eating good tonight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this was it. I was going to do more, but some stuff happened and then i never really got back to it... I found out I kinda fell out of the fandom, the only person that i was connected to that was doing this stuff stopped for a while and I just.. Idk stopped? I did have fun writing this, and I fell in love with this again reviewing it, but I don't think Ill ever continue it. 
> 
> If you want to know what happens next- 
> 
> basically Jake goes home to visit and a few of the others tag a long. Feng records videos and meg and her friends work out as Jake deals with his family and past. He never makes up with his dad, but reconciles with his brother and his new children. Legion being the little scamps they are destroy and just cause chaos. Jake and Michael were also supposed to be getting closer and closer, but I never got around to it either. If I ever do get back into this fandom I might continue this but for now this is it. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed and if you have any questions or thoughts about this au then just ask! I still have tons of facts and little statements I wrote down in my notes! It'd be fun to talk about them.


End file.
